


LUCIEN C. GRACES 




* : 



Class U _____ 



/I 
Book_i^_ 



6 



Copyright^?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSH. 



THE NATURAL ORDER 
OF SPIRIT 

A Psychic Study and Experience 



BY 

LUCIEN C. GRAVES 



"He that answer eth a matter before 
he heareth it, it is folly and shame 
unto him," — Proverbs, 18:13 




BOSTON 

SHERMAN FRENCH & COMPANY 

1915 






Copyright, 1915 
Sherman, French &> Company 



SEP 24 I9»5 

©CI.A410624 



TO OUR SON 
WALTER LUCIEN GRAVES 

who while a student at the Harvard Law School was tragically 
removed from this life by a railroad accident on the evening of 
March 30, 1911, and who from the other side, having schooled 
himself in the clear transmission of thought, has made himself 
known to us by many confirmatory and deeply personal tokens 
for a period of four years, and who has stimulated and inspired 
us beyond expression in our search for the realities of the fu- 
ture life; and also 

TO 
HIS BROTHER 

the partner in a never-to-be-forgotten fellowship and comrade- 
ship rarely existing among brothers; and finally 

TO 

THE MANY SPIRIT FRIENDS 

to whose great satisfaction a door of communion has been 

opened : 

this book is lovingly dedicated by Mr. and Mrs. Lucien C. 
Graves, with the hope that it may help bereaved and inquiring 
souls on the way to healing and assurance even as this experi- 
ence has brought healing and great joy to themselves. 



THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC 

RESEARCH 

SECTION B 

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

NEW YORK 
519 west 149th street 

February 18th, 1915. 

It is hardly necessary for me to mention Mrs. Cheno- 
weth and her work in connection with the book of Mr. 
Graves. I have worked with her for many years in my 
own experiments and have found her a perfectly reliable 
psychic. I have always found her a perfectly honest 
and respectable person who is interested in her work 
for the help that it may give to the world and to in- 
dividuals who are seeking consolation and belief. The 
mere fact that this little book is based upon experiments 
with her will make it unnecessary to give any elaborate 
explanation of her character and work. 

(Signed) James H. Hyslop. 



PREFACE 

This book has been a work of compulsion. A 
necessity has been laid upon me and for several years 
has led me in the direction of this expression. I 
venture to quote the words of Jeremiah : " But his 
word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up 
in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and I 
could not stay." 

There are times in life when these words of the 
prophet do not seem far-fetched or inappropriate. 
There is the sudden turn in the road when we come 
face to face with an experience that appalls us for 
the time, when the easy complacencies of life are 
broken up and we are led to search for reality as 
never before. There are times when a great truth 
takes possession of one's being and a new vision of 
life and the universe dawns upon us, when out of the 
pit our feet are set upon a rock and a new song put 
in our mouth, and then we quote this ancient scrip- 
ture with new understanding. In this expression, 
there has been also a clear consciousness of spirit 
guidance and urgency much more than I should want 
to state in this simple beginning. This writing, such 
as it is, has been a deliverance of soul; it has been 
an experience of life for which I must find a door of 
utterance or be untrue to myself and the divine voice 
within. It has also been a work of long waiting and 
preparation, into which many volumes and prolonged 
study and experimentation on psychic lines have 



ii PREFACE 

been wrought, and which I hope has made for 
strength and moderation in my statement. 

The ruling idea of the book is the natural order 
of spirit. Is not such a conception of the future 
life and its conditions pressing upon thinking minds 
more and more insistently? Are there not many in 
these inquiring days who are led by the demands of 
the rational faculty for law and order, by an impera- 
tive sense of search for the dear ones who have been 
truly lost to them by death — are there not many 
who are constrained to ponder deeply on the reason- 
able conditions of a future life? 

And in the unification and coordination of all life 
and knowledge, can it be otherwise, we ask, than that 
the conditions and besetments of the future life 
should be an extension of the present natural order 
— though it would seem on a vastly larger and more 
refined scale? Are there not far-reaching sugges- 
tions in biology, and illuminating revelations in the 
new knowledge of our time concerning the ether and 
matter, that open up wonderful vistas of the possi- 
bilities of the universe for life continued? An able 
scholar and writer has referred to this dawning 
vision as " a universe of infinite subtlety, and yet of 
solidest reality and inconceivable potentialities." 

And what is psychic science doing here in bringing 
order and consistency and natural persuasiveness 
into this life and world extension? What are the 
conclusions of the great experimenters and students 
in this field rather than the mere theorizers as 
to the reality and order of spirit? And what shall 
we do with this increasing and illuminating body of 
testimony from the other side, unmistakably, em- 



PREFACE iii 

phatically, and persistently declaring the orderly 
sequences of life and the affiliation and correspond- 
ences of the material and spiritual worlds? 

But what shall we do also with the old supernat- 
uralism? That is taking care of itself. The old 
lines of demarkation between the natural and super- 
natural have insensibly faded away, and these fields 
of human thought have become continuous and uni- 
fied. The growing wonder of life and our surround- 
ings have crowned all things with a halo of the mirac- 
ulous, and our deepening sense of law and order has 
brought all things into the realm of nature. Only a 
deeper vision was needed in both cases, and that is 
the growing vision of our time. 

And, we note, the way has been long preparing 
for this sober view of the natural order of spirit. 
There has been a long eliminating process. The 
modern mind is little troubled by the notion of a 
curse resting upon the earth, the old antagonism of 
matter has disappeared in its wondrous idealism ; and 
so the old contamination of the juxtaposition of 
heaven and earth and the expulsion of the spirit 
world into the unknown have lost their appropriate- 
ness. Crude pagan notions of the future life and 
the disjunctive and revolutionary modes of Messianic 
thought are becoming obsolete. The old conceptions 
and habitations of the soul have long since failed to 
furnish any evident and congenial home. The under- 
world with its Elysian fields or paradise, the Hebrew 
crystal firmament, the Egyptian course of the sun- 
god, the path of the Milky Way, the islands of the 
blessed, and the heavens of the great poets, serve as 
a field for the poetic imagination, but they belong to 



CONTENTS 
A PRELIMINARY TESTIMONY 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I A TESTIMONY TO OPEN-MINDED AND REV- 
ERENT TREATMENT OF THE FUTURE 
LIFE AND ITS PSYCHIC STUDY . . . . 1 

The bane of inquiry: the closed door and 
the closed mind — Neither revelation nor 
science can set arbitrary bounds to our 
spiritual vision — Caution about asserting 
that it is better we should not know aught 
of what lies beyond — Let the winds blow 
and the floods come — Some knowledge vs. 
all faith — A notable confession of ortho- 
dox uncertainty and materialism — The man 
on the plank — God has put man on the 
search^ and the truth comes to us as we 
search. 

II A TESTIMONY TO CREATIVE ADAPTA- 
TIONS 16 

" Ne plus ultra " — Limiting the creative 
resources — The adjustability of the crea- 
tive wisdom as seen in deep-sea life — He 
who has given us an earthly housing and a 
bodily tabernacle, shall He not be able to 
give us a spiritual housing and a spiritual 
tabernacle ? — Transformation story of the 
water grub — The magic power of life, the 
immanent life — Certainly life has no diffi- 
culty about a body. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

III A TESTIMONY TO A SPIRITUAL FOUNDA- 

TION 35 

The two bases of existence, the material 
and the spiritual — Paul, the resurrectionist 
and student of the unseen — A man of strik- 
ing psychic experiences — Our concern is 
with these two orders of life and their vital 
connection — Life has to begin somewhere — 
The ascent from crude materiality to the re- 
finement of spirit — The deeper insight 
into the world of matter — Things are not 
what they seem — The romance of radio- 
activity, and its revelation of the inmost 
depths of matter — How the material and 
the spiritual worlds run into one another — 
But the energy of the material points to a 
higher energy of the spiritual. 

IV MARVELS OF THE ETHER 48 

How the ether speaks for itself — Conti- 
nuity of the ether — Incompressibility or den- 
sity of the ether — A hint at the psychic sig- 
nificance of the ether — The ether bridges all 
chasms, and permeates all substance, and 
binds all things into a spiritual universe — 
Elasticity of the ether, and its marvelous and 
varied vibrations — Invisible rays or dark 
light — The diversified manifestations and 
functioning of the ether waves — The uni- 
verse is larger than it seems — Spiritual 
telegraphy. 

V SOMETHING MORE ABOUT THE ETHER, 

ITS ENERGY AND BASIC NATURE ... 66 

Lord Kelvin's kinetic theory of rotational 
motion — The secret of the elastic energy 
and strength of the ether in its rotational cir- 
culation — The secret of all substance in the 



CHAPTER PAGE 

rotational ether — Plenty of material for any 
number of spirit worlds — What a magical 
substance ! — Final conclusions as to the en- 
ergy and vitality of spirit — Spirit more ex- 
pressive than matter — Augmented powers 
of seeing and moving — " And they sung as 
it were a new song " — Low ideas of the fu- 
ture state held by the ancient world. 

VI OTHER TESTIMONIES TO THE NATURAL 

ORDER OF SPIRIT 86 

Transcendence and immanence of certain 
great religious ideas — The drawing near of 
God, heaven, and spirit body — The unify- 
ing process in human thought — Historic ap- 
proach to the spirit world — The Hebrew 
firmament — The heavens of Dante and Mil- 
ton — A surrounding spirit world — The law 
of the counterpart. 

VII OBJECTIVITY OF THE SPIRIT WORLD . . 101 
Shall we insist on demonstration in all 
this ? — Spirit testimony and the spirit 
spheres — Difficult to conceive of spirit 
adaptations — It would seem to be altogether 
fitting that the spirit world should be related 
to our mother earth. 

VIII HISTORIC APPROACH TO THE SPIRIT 

BODY 120 

Alien look of spirit body — Resurrection 
ideas of Paul and his time — The underworld 

— The Hebrews developed a rising-up from 
the underworld — Paul's house from heaven 

— A word on miracle — Modern programs of 
the resurrection — " Let us hear the conclu- 
sion of the whole matter " — Why not look 
for the spiritual body in the natural order ? — 



CHAPTER PAGE 

The soul inseparable from a spirit envelope — 
With what kind of a body did the risen 
Christ come? 

IX IS THERE A WORD FURTHER ON THE 

ORIGIN AND DERIVATION OF SPIRIT? . 137 

Some observations of the aura and fluidic 
body — The suggestiveness of all this — 
What takes place at death ? — Allegory of 
the spirit body and soul — Emanations. Na- 
ture's hints and spirit testimony as to the up- 
building of the spirit world. 

X A TESTIMONY TO SPIRIT COMMUNION AND 

COMMUNICATION 161 

The naturalness and compulsion of spirit 
communion — Various testimonies on spirit 
communion — Spirit communication and te- 
lepathy — Extended telepathy and its as- 
sumptions — Telepathic vs. spiritistic cred- 
ulity — Why not go on and explain away all 
things as forms of social telepathic sugges- 
tion ? 

XI TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE FROM 

THE SPIRITISTIC THEORY 185 

What shall we think of a subconscious in- 
telligence capable of such fiendish deception? 
— • Is the subconscious activity of our nature 
an independent ego with no limitations ? — A 
few testimonies on the telepathic assumption 
— The fatal lack of personal psychic experi- 
ment. 

XII LET US NOW COME TO THE SPIRITISTIC 

INTERPRETATION 198 

It is an explanation that explains — Spirit 
return and communication inevitable — Con- 
sider for a moment the high purpose and 



CHAPTER PAGE 

character of the communication — Spirit 
teachings in their higher aspects — Consider 
the manner of communication or the trance 
situation — Hypnotism and secondary per- 
sonality ruled out — Philosophy of the trance 
situation by Sir Oliver Lodge. 

XIII A TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE SCEP- 

TICAL INTELLECT AND SPIRIT COMMU- 
NICATION 222 

The subjective side of proof — Scientific 
scepticism, and how it misses the truth — In- 
tellectual short-sightedness — The element of 
respectability in our intellectual miss of the 
truth — The heart has its rights and must be 
heard — Dogmatic bias and the spirit world 

— The old controversy between authority 
and reason — The dogmatic ascription of all 
psychic phenomena to Satan and demons — 
The old transcendence of the future life and 
its bar to spirit teaching — But is the loss of 
the old transcendence to be deplored? 

XIV THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 244 

This little world all there is — The 
fatal lack of imagination — Conflict of the 
new with the old — The new has to force 
and win its way — Progress held to be 
of Satan — The danger of reversion to for- 
mer mental habitudes. 

AN EXPERIMENTAL TESTIMONY 

I A PSYCHIC BRIDGING OF THE CHASM, 

MAY 22, 1911 255 

The incurably suspicious — A word on the 
situation — " He is so eager to communicate " 

— First attempt at reflecting symbols and 



CHAPTER PAGE 

pictures through the mediumistic lens — A 
never-to-be-forgotten train experience — A 
critical psychic estimate. 

II REPORT OF SECOND SITTING, OCTOBER 

7, 1911 265 

" Eager to tell of the wonderful life " — 
God's way of speaking to the aching heart — 
" The home over there " and the sweet home 
influence — A straight talk — The natural 
and progressive view of the future life vs. 
medieval transcendentalism — Spirit obj ec- 
tivities. 

III REPORT OF PSYCHIC INTERVIEW, APRIL 

IT, 1912 . ? 277 

" The great joy of the knowledge of this 
life " — Mental imaging or spirit impressions 
— " O think of the friends over there who 
before us the journey have trod " — " Come 
and let us reason together." 

IV INTERVIEW THE WEEK FOLLOWING, 

APRIL 23, 1912 287 

" Walter opens the door wide " — " He 
walked with you "— " Two little feet "— A 
letter from the world of spirit — Familiar 
portraits — A strain of music. 

V REPORT OF SITTING, OCTOBER 8, 1912 . . 294 

" The old sense of separation gone " — 

" Waking from a troubled sleep " — " O think 

of the home over there " — Spirit welcome — 

Churches over there and cheerful humor also. 

VI OCTOBER 24, 1912, INTERVIEW ..... 299 
A book reference interwoven — Spirit em- 
ployments, their variety and freedom — 
Mediumistic writing a natural process — A 
spirit procession and greetings. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

VII BRIEF REPORT OF SPIRIT MESSAGE, 

APRIL 24, 1913 306 

Spirit visitants — " It seems so good to be 
talking in a language that we all under- 
stand " — " The place whereon thou standest 
is holy ground " — " Everything I studied and 
every step I took, of importance in my life 
over here " — Psychic discussions in spirit — 
Familiar family talk and fellowship. 

VIII MENTAL PICTURING, APRIL 25, 1913 ... 311 
Thought-communion and its difficulties 
in the trance situation — Spirit guidance 
through the old parsonage — Putting up a 
wire fence by telepathic imagery — The old 
charge of triviality — Growth of the spirit 
body — A letter dictated from the spirit. 

IX MYERS' INTERVIEW, APRIL 27, 1913 ... 318 
Mr. Myers' pronounced belief in spirit 
communication — Friendly introduction — A 
spirit questionnaire. Thirty questions and 
answers. 

X FAMILY SPIRIT INTERVIEW, APRL 30, 1913 336 
" It means more to me than you can ever 
understand " — Cooperative plans — The vi- 
sion of lambs — The glasses' case righted — 
" The awakening was beautiful " — The eye 
and ear trouble — How the truth worked out 
on the other side — " Nobody ever loses their 
own." 

XI PSYCHIC INTERVIEW, THURSDAY, MAY 1, 

1913 345 

A strange reappearance and its lesson — 
Spirit report of complicated family relation- 
ship — Grandfather Daniel — "He is just 
away ! " 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XII FINAL TALK OVER THE BORDER, MAY 2, 

1913 353 

Parting exchanges — A little dramatic in- 
terplay — Have you ever seen Christ? — 
Amherst life — The postman and his leather 
bag — Good-bye words — " Home of your 
own at last " — " You are looking at the 
stars " — " Why don't you go on with the 
book? " — Closing the case. 



A PRELIMINARY TESTIMONY 



CHAPTER I 

A TESTIMONY TO OPEN-MINDED AND 
REVERENT TREATMENT OF THE 
FUTURE LIFE AND ITS PSYCHIC 
STUDY 

" Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you." 

Can we approach this great question of the future 
life and the psychic investigation thereof with an 
open mind and reverent spirit? Can we lay aside 
the assumption, at least in the interest of friendly 
discussion, that tradition on the one hand, or materi- 
alism on the other, has said the last word upon the 
subject or forever barred the gate of further in- 
quiry ? 

THE BANE OF INQUIRY: THE CLOSED DOOR AND 
THE CLOSED MIND 

The bane of inquiry, we admit, is the closed door 
and the closed mind. And whether the closed mind 
results from a rigid assumption that nothing can be 
added to or subtracted from a given discussion, or 
from short-sighted and sophistical notions, the result 
is about the same. 

But if this subject of life continued and its in- 
vestigation is to be discussed with any enlightenment 
and profit, it must surely be treated like any other 
vital subject in an earnest, fair-minded, and scientific 
spirit. This accords with the spirit of our age, the 



2 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

zeit-geist that is abroad in human thought. It is 
not so much the fashion of thought, as once, to as- 
sume that a subject is forever closed and sealed, and 
that it is blasphemy to make further inquiry, and 
that God has no further light for countless souls that 
cry out for such light. Such a hard-and-fast atti- 
tude has been so often rebuked in the progress of 
discovery and invention and the onward march of 
great liberating ideas, that it has become an old story 
that he who runs may read. 

We have heard the story of the first steamship 
that crossed the Atlantic. It was loudly predicted 
that it could not be done, and some one in England 
wrote a demonstration, it is said, that it was impos- 
sible. It is asserted that when Marconi was experi- 
menting with wireless telegraphy on the Swiss lakes, 
there were people who called him insane and advised 
that he be confined in an asylum. But what a won- 
derful record the wireless has made in these few 
years in ameliorating the horrors of marine disasters 
and the saving of human life! And the end is not 
yet. 

The story is told of the French philosopher, 
Comte, that he declared it was of no use to study the 
stars ; they were forever beyond the reach of man's 
intellect. But the spectroscope soon compelled the 
stars to disclose their elements, and an arduous 
course of study is before one to-day who would learn 
all that the heavens have revealed to the searching 
mind of man. In this same category is Galileo's letter 
to John Kepler : " O my beloved Kepler ! How I 
wish we could have one good laugh together. Here 
at Padua is the principal professor of philosophy 



OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 3 

whom I have repeatedly requested to look at the 
moon and planets through my telescope, which he 
pertinaciously refuses to do." Another contempo- 
rary, fearful of the new knowledge, is said to have 
averred : " I will never concede his four new planets 
to that Italian, though I die for it." But Galileo's 
four satellites of Jupiter continued on their majestic 
course in spite of closed eyes and ecclesiastical pro- 
hibitions, as they had from the beginning. 

And has it not been so in all the fields of human 
knowledge? Have not the barriers, whether seem- 
ingly impossible, or seemingly scientific, or seemingly 
religious, been swept away again and again and the 
horizons of human vision steadily enlarged, until 
now who can venture to say what shall or shall not 
be, or who shall dogmatize: "Hitherto shalt thou 
come, but no further " ? 

Surely the open mind is becoming to us, in view 
of the lessons of the past, and modest assertions in 
our circumscribing the revealings of the future and 
the possibilities of the universe. 

So many things have been declared to be impossi- 
ble, so often the assumption has been made of the 
whole counsel of God, or the drawn veil which no 
man can penetrate, that we need to be wiser than we 
are now or very cautious, before we assert that be- 
yond this line we must not search, or beyond the 
present outlook we can know nothing. 

NEITHER REVELATION NOR SCIENCE CAN SET AR- 
BITRARY BOUNDS TO OUR SPIRITUAL VISION 

But what shall we say here of revelation and sci- 
ence? And we answer at once that neither revela- 



4 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

tion, so-called, nor science can set arbitrary bounds 
to our spiritual vision. There has been a vital en- 
largement of men's thoughts here. Revelation is a 
larger term, and science a more ideal term than we 
once conceived. A clearer and profounder study of 
the essence and scope of revelation has been given to 
this age, and a notable contribution might be in- 
stanced in the writings of J. Brierly. We are 
clearly perceiving that revelation cannot be limited 
to any particular age, or people, or book; and in 
saying this we do not detract from the unique spirit- 
ual message and position of the Bible, the Book of all 
books. The vision has come to us that revelation 
is universal and progressive, not local and static ; 
that it includes science itself, its inductive method 
and liberalizing influence, and in fact holds in its 
sweep all manifestations of the infinite and indwelling 
Wisdom. Revelation is a seed forever growing, a 
light forever brightening and shining more and more 
unto the perfect day; and Christianity is the river 
of God forever receiving and incorporating into itself 
new tributaries from the infinite reserves of truth. 

" Auld Custom is a sleekit saint 

And sae is Fashion, 
And baith will watch till sinners faint, 

To lay the lash on; 
Men follow them wi' ane accord, 

Led by their noses, 
Because they cry, ' Thus saith the Lord/ 

The God o' Moses." 

And as for science, a new idealism has entered here 
also with the deeper insight into the nature of mat- 



OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 5 

ter, and the new theory of electrons and radio-activ- 
ity; and this new idealism is fast dissolving the old 
hard-and-fast materialism. Sir Oliver Lodge, presi- 
dent of the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, is a striking example of this new scientific 
idealism; and his address before that body (Septem- 
tember, 1913), on " The Continuity of Life," was 
quoted far and wide by the press and seems to point 
to a larger scientific vision. 

Note these excerpts : " The physical discovery of 
the twentieth century, so far, is the electrical theory 
of matter." 

" The universe is a larger thing than we have any 
conception of." 

" The ether of space is the great engine of con- 
tinuity, the one all-permeating substance that binds 
the whole of the particles of matter together, and the 
universal medium of communication between worlds." 

Such statements are highly significant, and they 
pave the way for a final declaration by this distin- 
guished physicist that after thirty years' experience 
of psychical research begun with the usual hostile 
prejudice, the facts have convinced him that " per- 
sonality persists beyond bodily death." And to this 
he adds the bold testimony : " The evidence to my 
mind goes to prove that discarnate intelligence, under 
certain conditions, may interact with us on the ma- 
terial side." 

Such an address on the part of science in its official 
robes, pointing out the significance of the electrical 
theory of matter in its bearing upon spirit existence 
and spirit world, is certainly a sign of the scientific 
times, and is calculated to make many people think 



6 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

where they have not thought much before. And so 
we might repeat that neither revelation nor science 
can set arbitrary bounds to our spiritual vision ; reve- 
lation is too comprehensive and science is too pro- 
phetic. 

We have reason to be very chary, in view of the 
history of human thought, about assuming that we 
possess the whole counsel of God, and that any seri- 
ous consideration of the future life is out of the ques- 
tion. In these days when the world is so full of the 
sense of mystery at the wonderful works of God, we 
cannot dismiss the problem of survival and the exist- 
ence and evidences of spirit by assuming an exclusive 
or trifling attitude. As Dr. Hyslop has said in 
one of his lectures : " The time has gone by 
when psychic phenomena can be dismissed with a 
sneer." 

CAUTION ABOUT ASSERTING THAT IT IS BETTER 
WE SHOULD NOT KNOW AUGHT OF WHAT LIES 
BEYOND 

And further, the open mind, it seems to me, will 
be cautious about asserting that it is better we should 
not know aught of what lies beyond, and that no such 
new evidence is needed. What ground have we for 
saying that no new evidence is needed, and how did 
people find it out? We have little right to make this 
objection until we have fairly canvassed the whole 
field and come to a just understanding of what the 
mind requires in different situations — the mind be- 
reaved, the scientific mind, the perplexed mind. 
When the skies of life are clear and there are few 
obstacles in the way and no great challenge has come 
to us, we can seem to get along passably well with 



OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 7 

the traditional supports we have been accustomed to. 
We have heard by the hearing of the ear, but we 
have given no special thought to circumstances 
widely-diverse from our own. There has been no 
great breaking-up of the quiet routine of life; we 
have not been called upon suddenly to face some 
unaccountable and appalling situation; we have not 
been led to make any special explorations into the 
critical world of science or the great cosmopolitan 
world of affairs that have sharply questioned our 
easy-accepted ways of thinking. 

LET THE WINDS BLOW AND THE FLOODS COME 

But let the winds blow and the floods come. Let 
some unexpected and paralyzing bereavement come ; 
let the mind be bewildered and the heart despairing; 
let a deathly lonesomeness hold the soul in its grip 
— and the world does not seem so simple. We have 
not lost the religious nurture of the past — that can- 
not be taken away, it is a part of us ; we have not 
lost touch with our spiritual environment. But our 
religious complacency as to the ordering of life, its 
stability and continuit}^, and the priceless values of 
life, may be rudely shocked. What and where is the 
future, after all — the future of the soul? "O my 
God, my soul is cast down within me. All thy waves 
and thy billows are gone over me." We are con- 
scious now of a new need of reality. In its supreme 
loss, the bereaved soul finds its conventional hope 
and faith not enough, and cries out in anguish for 
some assurance that is nearer, more personal, and 
human. Faith may be strained even to the last limit 
of tenuity. 



8 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" Yes, faith is a goodly anchor, 
When skies are sweet as a psalm, 

At the bows it lolls so stalwart, 

In its bluff, broad-shouldered calm. 

" But after the shipwreck, tell me, 

What help in its iron thews, 
Still true to the broken hawser, 

Deep down among seawood and ooze." 

SOME KNOWLEDGE VS. ALL FAITH 

We would by no means minimize the function of 
faith and the religious evidences of the future life. 
Faith gathers up in her arms the intimations and an- 
ticipations of the future as interpreted by the 
church, and these in their highest aspect have 
brought unspeakable help to struggling souls. But 
is there no need of further token? Have we never 
been conscious of any further need here, as when 
standing dumbly by the grave of our loved ones or 
when deeply involved in the perplexities and prob- 
lems connected with life and its continuance? 

" And the stately ships go on 

To their haven under the hill: 
But oh ! for the touch of a vanished hand 

And the sound of a voice that is still ! ,3 

The reticence of tradition and the Bible as to any 
definite and rational account of the future, and to 
our eager questionings about the future, is freely 
acknowledged. 

We are told that : " Ever by our side is that im- 
palpable wall, which, to those who go hence is as 
yielding vapor, but to those who would come hither 



OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 9 

is as adamant. Every hour, every moment, the 
cloudy wall is pierced by departing souls; still it 
keeps its awful secret. No cry comes back to us, no 
voice to tell us of yonder realm." 

But it is just this awful silence that is unbearable, 
especially in the crises of life; and to the statement 
that no cry comes back to us we must take positive 
exception in the light of modern psychic research and 
spirit philosophy and the Bible, and in the light of 
personal experience. A wall that should be as vapor 
from one side and as adamant from the other, is a 
singular structure, to say the least. There is not a 
little preaching of this nature, and doubtless some of 
us have indulged in it in our argumentative and pious 
effort to justify the ways of God to men. 

But are the preachers in general quite satisfied 
with this old fatalistic, priestly position, that God 
cannot have any further light in store for men on this 
great question of human destiny? It seems to me 
that not the preacher nor the hearer is quite satis- 
fied here. There is a light that does not shine, a 
healing that does not come. We may charge it up 
to faith — the dumbness, the silence, the longings of 
the aching heart for some little token, the irrepressi- 
ble questionings of the rational faculty — but does 
not the heart still cry out in its bitterness and is not 
the intellect restless and wearied like a captive bird 
beating its wings against its cage? We believe there 
is a large confession here. We believe from our own 
inner life and observation that these experiences are 
common, and that there is a need here that affects 
humanity, and doubtless more in this twentieth cen- 
tury than in the past. For our spiritual needs in- 



10 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

crease with the complexity of our growth and devel- 
opment. 

If, in one case, the heart is sick with longing and 
the lonesomeness of the terrible gulf that has inter- 
vened; in another case, the mind that is accustomed 
to think out its problems and to feel its way cau- 
tiously on grounds of rational inquiry may be equally 
troubled in its perplexities. And while we would not 
presume that it is necessary for us to know all about 
the future life in its nature, yet we are profoundly 
convinced that some direct and definite knowledge of a 
life and world behind the veil is of the greatest possi- 
ble benefit to the soul and to humanity. We want 
something more than " I hope so," so often heard in 
this connection ; than the easy conventional faith with 
its ups and downs in this great interest. What we 
need and cry out for is something of the certainty 
and joyous expectation of real life. 

But we are told that Paul says : " We walk by 
faith and not by sight." But it is very easy, we well 
know, and not uncommon to press a Scriptural text 
into too hard service, as the doctrinal exigencies of 
theological systems have abundantly evidenced in 
the past. Even in its spiritual aspect, a Scriptural 
text does not always reflect the present as well as the 
time and circumstances of its utterance. Paul's say- 
ing was natural for his time, with the Lord's absence 
and return in close view. They could not behold 
him just then, but very soon he would come in great 
power, or death would draw the veil. But to press 
the text to the extent of putting an interdict upon 
all inquiry and all knowledge of the life to come 
and of a spirit world, is to do violence to Scripture 



OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 11 

and reason. Great harm has often been done by tak- 
ing a Scripture and forcing it to militate against the 
world's evolutionary progress into a larger vision. 
But we need not fear for the spiritual application 
of the text. We need not be concerned but that 
there will alwa} r s be room for the presence and exer- 
cise of faith in the struggle and trials of life, in the 
spiritual possibilities of life, and the final victory 
of good over evil. But to interpret faith as solemnly 
closing and sealing the door of the future and as 
putting restraint upon spiritual faculty, is to wrong 
life as we know it and to add greatly to the burden 
and despair of faith. Faith is not a passive, static 
attitude forever content with the past, but is rather 
an active, vital, outreaching mood of the soul toward 
the entire horizon of truth. 

A NOTABLE CONFESSION OF ORTHODOX 
UNCERTAINTY AND MATERIALISM 

We might notice here an illustration or two from 
real life, as bearing on this notion that no further 
light is needed — and real life, of course, abounds 
in such cases. There is a certain biographical con- 
fession by the daughter of a noted missionary and a 
teacher for many } T ears that seems to me typical of a 
certain class of inquiring minds. This teacher was 
Miss Judson (Abby A.), daughter of Dr. Adoniram 
Judson, the noted missionary to Burmah, who, in 
one of her books, made this frank confession of her 
inner life and struggles. " When a person died I 
supposed he was completely carried off, and there 
was nothing more of him here. It never once oc- 
curred to me that disembodied souls could come to 



12 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

us and influence us. This state of mind was incipi- 
ent materialism. As time passed, I began to be 
sceptical as to the continuance of life at all after 
the death of the body. I thought it more than prob- 
able that when the body died we knew no more. I 
thought that spirit power animated our bodies for a 
little while, and that when the body dissolved its por- 
tion of power returned to the universal source, desti- 
tute of all individuality. And alas! the religion 
taught in my church did not make me long for im- 
mortality." 

Miss Judson was brought up in a strict orthodoxy, 
we may well suppose, and in the times when Calvinis- 
tic decrees ruled the thoughts of many. As to the 
possibility and fact of spirit communication, Miss 
Judson makes this significant statement : " I thought 
most of it was fraud and humbug, and that if there 
were any outside spiritual agency in it, it was Satan 
himself or his emissaries. I was also very much 
afraid of it." 

I insert these words, so compactly put, because 
they seem to me especially representative of a com- 
mon, indiscriminating, mental attitude, particularly 
it would seem in the church. It is a confession of 
fear and impatient exclusiveness that markedly shows 
the need of the open mind, and we may be thankful 
that in these days of increasing psychic light and in- 
quiry it is growing less and less. Those who have 
read aught of Miss Judson's writings know that out 
of her early, iron-bound philosophy she emerged an 
ardent believer and very able advocate of spirit com- 
munion. 



OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 13 

THE MAN ON THE PLANK 

I am tempted to give one more confession here, as 
indicating this common challenging trend of mind ; 
the figure of the confession is so very apt, and the 
case is so well vouched for. The incident is from a 
sermon by Dr. Savage, well-known for his deep in- 
terest and knowledge in matters psychic. 

" Here I am walking on a plank, and it reaches 
out into the fog, and I have got to keep walking. I 
know that pretty soon I must walk over the end of 
that plank ; perhaps to-night, perhaps next year, 
perhaps in twenty years. I don't know when, and 
when I walk over it, I haven't the slightest idea into 
what and I don't believe anybody else knows. And," 
he added, " I don't like it." 

This is not the confession of a strong religious 
faith, but it is a striking and pathetic confession, 
laying bare the secret of many souls and their lack 
of heart and hope. Doubtless there are many thou- 
sands to whom the question of the future life has not 
appealed in a serious way, and who have given it lit- 
tle consideration ; the absorption of the present, and 
of material goods, and of youthful energy, has filled 
up their time. There has been no great awakening 
of the soul. Yet, on the other hand, there is a great 
multitude of inquiring minds and sorrowing hearts, 
who have been brought face to face with this great- 
est and most vital of all questions, and who sadly 
need a larger vision and a larger place on which to 
set their feet. " Who shall roll us away the stone 
from the door of the sepulcher? "is a great inquiry 
still. 



14< THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

This testimony to open-minded and serious treat- 
ment of the psychic problem, we give as a suggestive 
outline. It may be filled in to any extent. Other 
objections may be raised by the mind biased to any- 
thing and everything psychic, but these are often 
so transparent as to deceive only the unthinking. 

GOD HAS PUT MAN ON THE SEARCH, AND THE 
TRUTH COMES TO US AS WE SEARCH 

We might just note in passing the old assumption 
of passive waiting and fatalism. If God has any 
more light for us, He will attend to it. It is not for 
us, Prometheus-like, to pry into the secrets of the 
Almighty. This objection has had much vogue in 
the past, but is curiously out of place in the inquir- 
ing, pushing life of to-day. It is voiced in the fa- 
mous argument of the English Church divine with 
the consecrated cobbler, William Cary : " If God 
intends to convert the heathen, he will do it without 
your help or mine." This was supposed to conclude 
the whole matter. It is a very ancient and ecclesias- 
tical form of objection, and has been used to block 
every great advance in human knowledge, and as a 
principle has done untold mischief. 

It is easy to follow this out. If God intended 
that we should know anything about the all-pervad- 
ing ether and its energy, and the marvels of the wire- 
less, and electric science, or the binomial theorem, 
or Kepler's laws of planetary motion, or the treat- 
ment of disease, or certain strange, psychic phenom- 
ena common in all ages from the woman of Endor to 
modern psychic research — if God had intended we 
should know aught of these things, He would have 



OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 15 

made them perfectly plain from the beginning, and 
not left men to wander about and stumble for thou- 
sands of years. If God had intended that Europe 
should know anything about this Western Continent, 
He would of course have made it perfectly plain cen- 
turies before Columbus. 

But this will suffice. Our modern life is not in a 
mood to have much patience with these pious objec- 
tions of the past. Psychic subjects must be investi- 
gated, and not weakly excluded or scoffed at on 
merely a priori grounds without knowledge. The 
simple truth is, that God has put man on the search ; 
man is forever a seeker and adventurer, and no de- 
partment of human life is exempt from this law of 
search, not even the future life. The truth can wait, 
but it will not come for mere waiting on our part. 
It will come when we search for it as for hidden 
treasure and are ready for it, and it will come in no 
other way. " Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, if 
thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as 
for hid treasures ; then shalt thou find the knowledge 
of God." 



CHAPTER II 

A TESTIMONY TO CREATIVE 
ADAPTATIONS 

" Lift up your eyes and behold who hath created these things. 
Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting 
God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither 
is weary? There is no searching of his understanding." 

Isaiah 40:96, 28. 

" NE PLUS ULTRA " 

A Spanish coin before Columbus is said to have 
borne the motto on the Pillars of Hercules, " ne plus 
ultra," as indicating the geographical conclusion of 
that age that these great rocks guarding the entrance 
to the Mediterranean marked the ends of the earth, 
and there were no lands beyond. But after Colum- 
bus' adventurous voyage to the West, and the open- 
ing up of glimpses of a new world, the coin bore the 
slightly changed but positive inscription, " plus ul- 
tra," as interpreting the larger vision and outlook 
which had come to the world. 

And is not this a parable of what has always been 
going on in the discoveries and disclosures of truth 
among men? Times without number the dictum has 
been pronounced, " Ne plus ultra " ; but the genera- 
tions have gone by, men have slowly gained in experi- 
ence and power of adjustment, and at length the 
negation has faded out, and the changed and cheer- 
ing motto is again seen, " Plus ultra." It is such 

16 



CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 17 

an easy and complacent proceeding to take the nar- 
row view of our more or less immediate surroundings 
and treat the possibilities of the universe as com- 
prised within our little familiar circle. 

Now, to get this testimony in hand, let us put the 
question in simple form: Why does the reality of 
spirit existence seem so remote to us? Why does a 
spirit world in any scientific and every-day aspect, 
and spirit adaptation thereto, seem too much of a 
strain upon us? Why do many seem content to rest 
their faith in the world of spirit upon conventional 
and dogmatic ways of thought, made respectable and 
sacred by long usage? Why do we hasten to rele- 
gate the whole matter to the supernatural as the easi- 
est manner of disposing of a disturbing and unwel- 
come subject? 

LIMITING THE CREATIVE RESOURCES 

Now we can answer this question in part at least 
by carrying out the hint we have given, that our 
sense of unreality is due in a measure to the tacit and 
thoughtless assumption that the creative resources 
are confined largely within our little materialistic 
circle. We may not say this outright ; but we must 
frankly confess our shortsightedness, that we often 
miss the extent and hidden import of the wonderful 
creative adaptations of life everywhere about us. 
We are busy here and there, and their voice is not 
always heard clearly, and we miss the message to 
which they beckon us on. " As thy servant was busy 
here and there, he was gone." 

Now we live in such a world of creative adapta- 
tions, that, " if we should count, they are more in 



18 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

number than the sands " ; and some of them, we sub- 
mit, are marvelously suggestive and prophetic of 
higher worlds and environments, which eye hath not 
seen nor ear heard. And we cannot pass these by 
without loss. For, we repeat : it is in part our fail- 
ure to perceive clearly the spiritual instruction and 
symbolism of the physical world and its life about us 
that brings discouragement and failure when we at- 
tempt to make real to ourselves a world of higher 
and more subtle adaptations. Confined to our local 
circle and enswathed in its materialistic atmosphere, 
and failing to take time to read the deep spiritual 
hints and familiar confidences of nature as to regions 
beyond, we say to ourselves, unconsciously perhaps, 
" Ne plus ultra." The spiritual imagination finds no 
resting place, no supports, as it attempts to wing its 
way from the known to the unknown. We can think 
and speak familiarly and deal familiarly with the 
surface of things in our little material round, but 
failing to ponder the hidden vision at our feet we fail 
to compass the larger and more subtle vision of the 
higher world. 

" God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
that we ask or think." " Behold the Lord's hand 
is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear 
heavy that it cannot hear." Yet our eyes may be 
holden through inattention, and we may fall into the 
dull and uninspiring habit of putting our doubts 
and limitations upon the creative capacity. We for- 
get and overlook the infinite variety of His revealings 
and the manifoldness of His operations. In short, 
there is the half-formed thought that God is so ham- 
pered in His resources that He cannot fashion more 



CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 19 

than one world, our little world of daily custom, and 
so we fail to rise to the nobler thought of God's re- 
peating His creative wisdom and handiwork on a 
larger and finer scale. 

Now, after this mutual confession — and confes- 
sion we are told is good for the soul — let us proceed 
to the concrete part of our story. Let us consider 
by way of remembrance how worlds even here may lie 
in juxtaposition and relationship, one world passing 
into another. It will help us in our higher venture. 

There is a saying that has been somewhat in 
vogue : " One world at a time." But the sa} r ing is 
a half truth. For while it holds a certain truth — 
as that we must give due attention to the life that now 
is — it may also be made to suggest much error. 
For it may suggest that we need not concern our- 
selves about another world until it is thrust upon us, 
or that different worlds may be impassably separated 
with no vital and evolutionary relationships. But 
we do not find life so disjointed. The fact is, that 
two worlds may lie in near though perhaps unseen 
contact with one another, and even pass by insensible 
degrees into one another, and while differing widely, 
it may be, in their adaptations, yet be linked together 
by vital and essential bonds. 

THE ADJUSTABILITY OF THE CREATIVE WISDOM 
AS SEEN IN DEEP-SEA LIFE 

We are familiar with creative adaptations in the 
insect world as typified in the worm and butterfly. 
But we note that of late years the adjustability of 
the creative wisdom has had striking illustration in 
the explorations of deep-sea life. And this new 



20 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

world of life sets before us strange and unheard-of 
phases of existence that without knowledge would 
seem entirely impossible, and show us how vain a con- 
ceit it is to limit the creative capacity, and to fancy 
that our own little material corner is all there is. 

We learn that, since 1876, a number of scientific 
expeditions have made explorations in the great ocean 
basins. And the results have been published in nu- 
merous bulky volumes, profusely illustrated with the 
strange forms of life that abound in the depths of 
the ocean. And among these, thirty-seven volumes 
(1912) have been contributed by the Prince of 
Monaco in his oceanographic work. 

Now, we will suppose the statement had been made 
beforehand, that living creatures of great variety 
could sustain life under circumstances utterly remote 
from the circumstances of our life and of animals 
about us. We will suppose that some one made the 
assumption that such creatures could live where there 
was not a ray of light, where there was no air to 
breathe and no food as far as could be known, and 
under the enormous pressure of miles of water above 
them. It would surely be set down as a wild and fan- 
tastic dream. But what is man with his experience 
of a few years, and his proneness to generalize from 
a few things, that he should set bars and doors to 
the infinite Life, forever brooding and manifesting 
itself! 

The old Persian poet expresses our habit of pessi- 
mistic limitation: 

" A moment's halt, a momentary taste 

Of Being from the well amid the waste — 



CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 21 

And Lo ! the phantom caravan has reached 

The nothing it set out from — Oh, make haste." 

Now the deep-sea explorations have brought some 
strange truths to light ; and one discovery is said 
to be that living organisms are to be found every- 
where in the ocean down to the depths of three or 
four miles. It was a great surprise to the world, 
says one writer, to learn that at these great depths, 
where utter darkness reigns and the temperature is 
near freezing point and where there is the enormous 
pressure of four or five tons to the square inch, large 
and small animals belonging to nearly all marine 
types and even endowed with eyes could flourish in 
great abundance. It is like a story of some magic 
world. This scientist adds : " These are extremely 
interesting instances of the way in which life can 
adapt itself to remarkable and hitherto unconceived 
conditions of life." Multitudes of these fishes, some 
of very strange forms and some allied to extinct fos- 
sil types, have been hauled up by the deep-sea nets. 

But how, we ask curiously, did this deep-sea life 
find its way and make its home in this water under- 
world? And the scientist says they probably mi- 
grated from the shallow shores, driven out by preda- 
tory fishes, and in the course of ages they have be- 
come thoroughly conformed and habituated to these 
vast ocean depths. 

But we just spoke of eyes. And what can these 
deep-sea forms do with eyes in a region of black dark- 
ness? Well, if these fishes have eyes, we may be 
sure they have something to tell in justification of 
them, and that light in some way is provided. It 



22 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

is not provided in our way, it is true; for the light 
of the sun, we are told, can penetrate to only 100 or 
150 fathoms below the surface. But He who has 
ordained the sun and the moon has also ordained in 
His evolutionary adjustments that if these strange 
creatures of the underworld cannot have a light sus- 
pended over them, they must carry a light with them. 
And so they are furnished with a special light plant ; 
some with organs which emit a blue-green, phosphor- 
escent light, and serve the function of searchlights 
that can be turned on and off at will. Some are fur- 
nished with luminous bands on the sides, which 
" shine like the port-holes of a ship at night." An 
octopus discovered by the Prince of Monaco had one 
large eye divided into two parts, " one for seeing and 
the other for projecting a phosphorescent light." 
And luminous fish that possess eyes that serve as lan- 
terns and for seeing abound in these lower depths. 
In imagination, therefore, one may figure to one's 
self endless torchlight processions of fishes and lu- 
minous cephalopods passing through the black depths 
of the sea. " The deep-sea nets were expected to 
catch blind fish, whereas they brought up fish with 
large and more powerful eyes than any seen before." 
(See " Monaco and Monte Carlo.") 

And in this way the scientist tells us the eternal 
darkness of these deep places of the earth is illu- 
minated. It is a marvelous adaptation; and it is 
highly suggestive of other adaptations in a world in- 
finitely higher, of the possibilities of light and vision 
in a world ethereal. " And the city had no need of 
the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the 
glory of God did lighten it." 



CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 23 

But another objection comes up. How is it pos- 
sible for these deep-sea inhabitants to find air and 
food, in a waste seemingly barren of both? I think 
we may fittingly answer from the facts brought out 
in ocean study, that air is supplied to them by means 
of an endless belt, and food is sifted down to them 
from above as in the Exodus story manna fell from 
above every morning for the children of Israel. 
" The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest 
them their meat in due season." " Thou openest 
thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living 
thing." 

Now, by the endless belt, we mean the great ocean 
currents which flow from the Tropics toward the 
Poles, and these, cooling and sinking to the bottom, 
return slowly as a deep-sea current to the Equator, 
where they are again drawn slowly to the surface. 
And as the pressure of the atmosphere is not sufficient 
to force the air down more than to an estimated 
depth of 1200 feet, this endless current does a good 
business in dragging it down and distributing it. 
And in this way, and on the simple principle that 
cold water is heavier than warm, we are told there is 
a supply of oxygen even at the greatest depth in the 
open ocean. 

And as for the food problem, the deep-sea explora- 
tions of the last fifty years have made known that 
the surface waters of the ocean are crowded with 
minute alga? or seaweeds, which are always at work 
converting the inorganic matter in the sea water into 
organic compounds. The scientist speaks of these 
surface waters down to a depth of two hundred fath- 
oms as " vast floating meadows." This microscopic 



24 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

vegetation in time settles to the bottom, together with 
the endless remains of minute animal forms of the 
radiolaria that also live at the surface. And it is 
believed that most of the deep-sea life, the lower 
animal forms, live on this ooze, digesting its organic 
matter ; while the higher forms prey upon these lower 
forms. And thus it comes to pass that He gives 
them their meat in due season. " Touching the Al- 
mighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in 
power and in judgment. 



» 



HE WHO HAS GIVEN US AN EARTHLY HOUSING 
AND A BODILY TABERNACLE, SHALL HE NOT 
BE ABLE TO GIVE US A SPIRITUAL HOUSING 
AND A SPIRITUAL TABERNACLE? 

We ask then, Is he not a bold man who shall ven- 
ture to limit the creative resources, who shall put 
bounds to the outgoings and expressions and diversi- 
ties of the infinite Adapter? And is he not bold 
who shall venture to limit the adjustments of the uni- 
verse in the case of man ? When He has given such 
evidences of versatile power in peopling with strange 
forms of life the most inaccessible parts of His do- 
minion, shall we think of limiting this creative energy 
and plasticity, when we come to face a new situa- 
tion and a higher mode of existence than that at pres- 
ent so apparent to our senses? Is not death itself 
a necessary evolutionary process, a new step in the 
creative adaptations, the emergence and manifesta- 
tion of new life? In short, He who has given us a 
housing here and a bodily tabernacle so fearfully 
and wonderfully fashioned and fitted, shall He not 
also be able to give us a spiritual housing and a spir- 



CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 25 

itual tabernacle with even higher correspondences 
and powers, as the conditions of that larger life shall 
demand? 

" The ship may sink and I may drink 

A hasty death in the bitter sea; 

But all that I leave in the ocean grave 

May be slipped and spared, and no loss to me. 

" What care I though fall the sky, 
And the shrivelled earth to a cinder turn? 
No fires of doom can ever consume 
What never was made nor meant to burn. 

" Let go the breath ! There is no death 
For the living soul, nor loss, nor harm. 
Not of the clod is the life of God: 
Let it mount as it will from form to form." 

TRANSFORMATION STORY OF THE WATER GRUB 

Take another form of creative adaptation, which 
though familiar and close at hand, is so strikingly 
apt and symbolic that we need to give it a little pass- 
ing attention. We have in mind the case of the water 
grub and dragon fly, with its illuminating analogies 
of the onward and upward progress of man into the 
life of the spirit. And we will take the liberty to al- 
legorize this old biological story for our purpose, 
necessarily utilizing in our development a few hints 
common to all analogies of this sort. 

One day, some water grubs were crawling along the 
bottom of a pool. One of them strangely enough 
was actuated by a sense of wonder — and the sense 
of wonder has a deal to do with progress and a larger 
vision. This particular grub was wondering what 



26 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

lay outside, what lay beyond their narrow grub world, 
the muddy pond in which they had always found 
themselves. He questioned this and the other grub, 
but received little light or sympathy. One hard- 
headed grub said to him impatiently : " Oh, what is 
the use of asking idle questions? This mud pool is 
all you and I have ever seen. Let us stick to our 
mud world here and now; in my judgment it is all 
the world there is. I haven't the time to bother 
about foolish notions, I'm too busy in trying to get 
something to eat. And if you go on this way," he 
added, " the grub people will soon look upon you as 
queer, unconventional, and infatuated, as possessed 
of a morbid and vain curiosity." 

But all this did not convince or deter our grub 
philosopher. A sense of grubby wonder had been 
stirring within him for some time ; he wondered as to 
the extent of the grub universe and as to a beyond. 
He had noticed the strange disappearance of the 
older members of the grub tribe from time to time, 
and he had long puzzled over the sudden goings and 
comings of his neighbor, the frog. The little grub 
was possessed by a great inquiry, and he refused to 
stifle it or to be ridiculed out of it. 

Then he was conscious at times, dimly perhaps, of 
something that prophesied to him of a fairer and 
brighter world than the mud bottom on which he had 
always lived. It was a curious fact that this grub 
or larva in this beginning of his career carried on 
his back a pair of very small, rudimentary wings, 
but he gave little thought to them as he had no occa- 
sion to use them. But they were a prophecy, and a 
sign and confirmation of the prophecy within. 



CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 27 

He decided as the next step to appeal to the frog: 
" Respected neighbor," he said, " may I ask a ques- 
tion about your travels? Where do you go when 
you climb up out of sight, and where do you come 
from when you plump back again so suddenly among 
us? Can you tell me if there is anything beyond 
our world of water and mud, or is it all a foolish 
dream? " 

The frog winked his eyes ; he was so surprised at 
hearing such talk from such a very inquisitive grub. 

" Why, yes ! " he croaked, " there is something to 
it ; it isn't a dream to me, for I often visit this world 
above water. They call it dry land, and it stretches 
on and on a thousand times farther than our pond ; 
but you cannot swim in it ; it is like and yet not 
like our mud home. And above the dry land, there 
is a wonderful world they call air, and there seems 
no end to this world; and the strange thing about it 
is, you cannot see it, and you cannot swim in it, but 
there are wonderful creatures who can." 

Now his inquisitor looked at him so hard, the frog 
kept on and tried to tell about the wonderful bright- 
ness of that upper world, and the beautiful green 
things, and the flowers, but said they could not be 
described by a frog like him. And in his way he 
tried to give some notion of a certain unity and 
continuity between the two contiguous worlds, and 
3 T et the upper w r orld was so unlike in its beauty and 
high order. 

The grub, of course, could not fully apprehend 
all this, and yet the frog's straight and earnest tes- 
timony was by no means lost ; something deep in the 
grub's nature responded to it, and it carried much 



28 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

comfort and conviction. Here at least was some- 
thing tangible, and it made a great impression and 
excited the grub's wonder still more. His own low 
world was transfigured in a new way, for he had 
touched as it were the borderland of the beyond, and 
it gave him new hope and something great to inspire 
his thought. 

But a day came, by and by, when he was to see 
more clearly. He began to feel dull and heavy and 
his body began to swell and to change curiously, and 
he felt an irresistible impulse to climb up one of the 
rushes or sticks in the pond, and explore for himself 
the mysterious regions beyond. On reaching the sur- 
face, he felt something of a shock, but held on by 
the hooks on his legs ; and then one of those wonder- 
ful transformations that are always taking place in 
the insect world happened ; a thing so strange that it 
would be unbelievable if it were not before our eyes. 
It is easy, we fear, to believe anything after it be- 
comes conventional and respectable, but not before. 
Out of the old body, as the pupa skin divided along 
the back, there emerged a new body, and the new was 
recognizably like and yet so unlike the old. It had 
been potentially connected with the old body all the 
time and had evolved out of it, and now when it was 
needed for new and larger adaptations, lo ! it came 
forth. " There is a natural body, and there is a 
spiritual body," Paul has written of a higher world. 
It was the resurrection of a very beautiful creature, 
the dragon fly, with large gauzy wings, a pair of 
them, that flashed in the sunlight with brilliant me- 
tallic colors, and with large eyes for its larger vis- 
ion, and other new powers. Now it would poise it- 



CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 29 

self on its glistening wings above the old mud pond, 
and then dart hither and thither with great swiftness, 
and anon soar high up in the air and sail over a 
world of sunlight and beauty. 

The grub had found at last that it was all true, his 
old inquiry and instinct were not in vain. Infinite 
wisdom had it all in view. He found that the Wis- 
dom that made the mud world, was able to make an- 
other world a stage higher, with greater possibilities 
and suited to a finer form of existence. The narrow 
confines of the prison house had expanded into the 
illimitable regions of the upper air. And the emanci- 
pated grub, with his new powers of self-propulsion 
and vision no longer crawled, but winged his way 
under blue skies and over green things of surpassing 
beauty. In short, he found the new habitat all pre- 
pared and marvelously suited every way to the new 
body. 

And another thing this re-embodied grub found in 
his new home; he found that he was not really far 
away. The two worlds were fundamentally and ele- 
mentally connected ; there is air in the water and 
water in the air, and the two worlds were only phases 
of the same unity, though the grub did not know 
this. 

And so, do we not have reason to believe that our 
higher worlds are vitally and necessarily connected, 
and who shall say where the material ends and the 
spirit begins? And is it not all spirit, in fact? 
though we may distinguish between the gross, heavy 
substance of matter which our senses report, and the 
refined, ultimate substance of spirit, which in its rapid 
vibrations our senses do not report. 



30 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" So sometimes comes to soul and sense, 
The feeling which is evidence 
That very near about us lies 
The realm of spiritual mysteries; 
The sphere of the supernal powers 
Impinges on this world of ours." 

While we have tried to use this creative adaptation 
fairly, we might remind ourselves in concluding that 
an analogy should not be pressed too strongly or at 
all points. For a seeming contradiction in the sym- 
bol sometimes simply indicates the point where a 
lower law is superseded by a higher law, as Drum- 
mond finely points out in the " Ascent of Man," 
where the law of the struggle for life is superseded 
by the struggle for the life of others. 

This is the parable of the dragon fly — and how 
many there are like unto it in the great volume of 
life! 

THE MAGIC POWER OF LIFE, THE IMMANENT 

LIFE 

Oh, the magic power of life! This life of bodily 
sense may seem all. We are troubled at the thought 
of spirit like the disciples of Jesus on the sea ; it 
seems foolishness to some and a stumbling block to 
others. But we lack primarily in vision of life. 
And when we speak of life, we mean the infinite life, 
the all-pervasive life, the immanent life of God, as 
manifesting itself in life everywhere. What shall 
we say of the out-reachings, the potentialities and 
compulsions, the endless adaptability, the infinite 
form and variety, in which Life, the Life of the uni- 
verse, delights to embody and reveal itself! Take 



CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 31 

the resurrection life of springtime — and it " re- 
joices like a strong man to run a race"; it is irre- 
sistible, nothing can stay its mighty tides. It climbs 
the trees and swells the buds, and sweeps over the 
hills in great billows of green, and in the valleys by 
the water courses it runs and has free course. It is 
the sublime march of life, pushing and forcing and 
shaping its way. 

The apple tree, as the winter cold came on, seemed 
lifeless. Still, the apple tree was all right; its re- 
habilitation or rebirth was provided for in cunning 
fashion. But it pitied the dead grass. Yet the 
grass was all right ; its rebirth was provided for 
down out of sight. But it pitied the withered flower. 
Yet the flower was all right ; its life and beauty had 
been packed away in a seed. 

You think I am dead/ 

The apple tree said, 
' Because I have never a leaf to show, 

Because I stoop 

And my branches droop, 
And the dull gray mosses over me grow. 
But I'm alive in trunk and shoot, 
The buds of next May 

I fold away — 
But I pity the withered grass at my root.' 

You think I am dead,' 

The quick grass said, 
' Because I have parted with stem an3 blade; 

But under the ground 

I am safe and sound 
With the snow's thick blanket over me laid. 



32 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

I'm all alive and ready to shoot 
Should the spring of the year 
Come dancing here — 

But I pity the flower without branch or root.' 



n ( 



You think I am dead/ 

A soft voice said, 
* Because not a branch or root I own; 

I have never died 

But close I hide 
In a plumy seed that the wind has sown. 
Patient I wait through the long winter hours, 

You will see me again — 

I shall laugh at you then 
Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers.' " 

Life is the great transformer. It lays its magic 
touch upon hard, intractable matter, and it becomes 
plastic and straightway is wrought into countless liv- 
ing things. Yea, we cannot speak of matter itself 
as dead, for it is vibrating with hidden under-cur- 
rent s of life. Life will lay its magic fingers upon a 
tiny seed or germ, and this bit of material it will 
fashion and transform and evolve into a most compli- 
cated structure, often endowed with marvelous 
powers. Oh, the flexibility and magical transforma- 
tion of life ! In seeking to fill the earth and sea and 
air, and in the long ascent to man, life has molded it- 
self into innumerable shapes and sizes, its plasticity 
and adaptation to situation are inexhaustible. The 
most vivid imagination would fail and faint in trying 
to picture the endless expressions and applications of 
life. 



CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 33 

CERTAINLY LIFE HAS NO DIFFICULTY ABOUT 

A BODY 

Now what is the conclusion of the whole matter? 
Certainly life has no difficulty about a body. It 
works with infinite ease and invention. And life, we 
may be sure, will not come short of its high com- 
mission, when in the course of development the old 
body must be sloughed off, and the spirit is ready for 
a higher form and greater freedom. As we have 
seen, there is no end to life; you cannot tell what it 
may do ; it always surprises you. Sir Oliver Lodge 
writes of the immortal part of man as necessarily 
having the power of constructing for itself a suitable 
vehicle of manifestation. If life fulfills its many 
promises in nature, and makes careful preparations 
for its rebirths, then life will not be found unforesee- 
ing and unprepared when it comes to the compelling 
and divine rebirth of all. Life had had long practice 
in rebirth and resurrection before man appeared; 
and when this highest stage of being was reached, for 
which the whole creation had travailed, all things 
were ready to lift the process of rebirth to the finest 
and fullest expression. The rebirth of man was 
spiritualized. This is life's mysterious, serene, and 
masterful way ; it is life's triumphant march. And it 
is all done so quietly, with so little seeming effort, 
that recipient and percipient may be unconscious of 
the mighty transformation. And this is like life 
everywhere. Unseen, silent, sure of its way, irre- 
spective of ignorance or prejudice, life conducts the 
soul out of the old corruptible lodging falling to ruin, 
into a habitation of the spirit. 



34 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

And why not ? Is not life under direction at every 
step in all its magic transformations and foreseeings? 
When we speak of life, we surely do not mean a thing 
per se, an isolated gigantic something that works here 
and there irresponsibly and blindly. We know very 
well that this is not life, but in all situations and 
every moment life keeps its connection with the in- 
finite Life, and derives all its forethought and magic 
power from that infinite source. Life in itself ex- 
plains nothing, but life working as a manifestation 
of the infinite Life explains everything. Does God 
have an infinite concern for man? Then life will 
adapt itself to all the crises of its career, and, we 
add, in its own natural order. And so when the un- 
welcome visitor who calls once upon all, knocks at the 
door, life will have the appointed house in order and 
the tenant will not be turned out of doors. 



CHAPTER III 

A TESTIMONY TO A SPIRITUAL 
FOUNDATION 

" Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure." 

THE TWO BASES OF EXISTENCE, THE MATERIAL 
AND THE SPIRITUAL 

" There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." 

In the church at Corinth there were certain ones 
who denied the resurrection, or in other words, the 
future life. And this was the occasion of Paul's 
writing one of the greatest, and most eloquent, and 
far-seeing of his messages — the resurrection chapter 
of the New Testament, I Corinthians 15. 

PAUL, THE RESURRECTIONIST AND STUDENT 

OF THE UNSEEN 

Paul was not deceived by his senses like the Corin- 
thians ; he by no means held that this circle of the 
physical around him was all there was to the world, 
or his physical organism all there was to him. It is 
well said that we are apt to be the fools of our senses. 
Paul was evidently a profound believer and a great 
student of the unseen, and he exhorts these very 
Corinthians farther on to " look not at the things 
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, 
for the things which are seen are temporal, but the 

things which are not seen are eternal." And Paul 

35 



36 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

was a mighty enthusiast on the resurrection, which he 
put in the forefront of the scheme of his gospel. 
And to the materialistic and pleasure-loving Corin- 
thians he sets forth in most exalted words his philos- 
ophy of the resurrection — words that reflect in a 
measure the beliefs of his times, but that carry us 
along as in the sweep of a current. 

A MAN OF STRIKING PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES 

And what reason had Paul for being a resurrection- 
ist ? We answer : Paul was a man of striking spirit- 
ual manifestations. While in a trance condition, 
Paul in the spirit body undoubtedly visited the spirit 
world. We have Paul's interpretation of the event 
in II Corinthians 12: 1-4, not in the language of 
present-day psychic science, but of his day. It was 
not a unique experience by any means or super- 
natural in the old sense, but there are many such well- 
authenticated cases, and the psychic student affirms 
they are strictly in accord with law. We may any 
of us in our sleep and under right conditions expe- 
rience such a temporary transition, though it may 
not be distinctly registered in the memory. 

And Paul also had communications with spirit 
messengers from the unseen as in the tempest at sea. 
" For there stood by this night the angel of God, 
whose I am and whom I serve." Are we so naive 
as to assume that a winged messenger of a Jewish 
angelic hierarchy was commissioned by Jehovah to 
fly to Paul with assurance of safety? Or shall we 
assume that this interesting occurrence belongs to 
the natural order, and that some fellow Hebrew 
spirit as Paul's guardian thus manifested, as in 



A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 37 

scores of other cases authenticated in psychic an- 
nals? The psychic student has no hesitation and 
no choice but to place this appearance, clothed in 
Jewis mental garb, in the natural category of 
psychic events, with other like incidents in Holy Writ. 

On the road to Damascus, did not Paul experience 
a wonderful breaking through from the spirit world, 
which had a most important bearing on his outlook 
upon the future life, and which proved the turning- 
point in his history? This psychic experience or 
" heavenly vision " showed to Paul " the power of the 
world to come," and demonstrated to him that Jesus, 
who had most certainly been put to death, was just 
as certainly alive somewhere. It is not a matter of 
surprise that in the long past this experience should 
have been interpreted as supernatural and miraculous, 
or that in later critical times it should be looked 
upon by some as purely subjective, or even that some 
hypercritical ones should relegate it to sacred legend. 
But in the light and knowledge of modern psychic 
truth, we can hold no doubt that it was a psychic 
manifestation from the unseen world about us for a 
great missionary purpose, a manifestation belonging 
to the natural order and paralleled in its mode by 
many other spirit appearances of the past and pres- 
ent. One may hear clairaudiently, or one may hear 
by " the direct voice," as in the manifestation of W. 
T. Stead after his transition.* In this case Paul 
seems to have heard clairaudiently or through the 
sense of spirit hearing. 

The trance experience and vision in the temple 

* The London Light gives recent striking instances of " the 
direct voice." 



38 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

(Acts 22: 17-20) is another evidence of Paul's 
mediumistic and clairvoyant and clairaudient powers. 
" While I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and 
saw him saying unto me, * Make haste and get thee 
quickly out of Jerusalem.' " 

OUR CONCERN IS WITH THESE TWO ORDERS OF 
LIFE AND THEIR VITAL CONNECTION 

And here in these earliest stories of the resurrec- 
tion, with their clue to the other New Testament ac- 
counts, we have especially the sources of the eloquent 
exposition Paul has given us of resurrection truth 
and the two bases of existence in I Corinthians 15. 
And it is with these bases of existence we are espe- 
cially concerned here. " There is a natural body, 
and there is a spiritual body. Howbeit that was not 
first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, 
and afterward that which is spiritual." Our life in 
this world is on the basis of a physical body adapted 
to a physical world; our life in the world of spirit 
will be on the basis of a spiritual body adapted to a 
spiritual world. The two bases of existence or 
adaptation differ evidently, yet we need not conclude 
in any supernatural way; for the time is no longer 
when everything pertaining to the future life can 
be easily disposed of in the category of the super- 
natural. We cannot doubt that between the two 
bodies there is a necessary and vital connection ; that 
out of the old forever comes the new, as Paul indi- 
cates, in a way, in his symbol of the wheat and the 
new body God giveth it or to its life principle accord- 
ing to His good pleasure. 



A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 39 

LIFE HAS TO BEGIN SOMEWHERE 

First comes " that which is natural." Let us fol- 
low Paul's order a bit. Everything has to have a 
beginning ; and here on this earth, down in this phys- 
ical layer, is the place of beginnings for us. Here is 
the starting point for us ; here we take the first steps 
in our long ascent; here is the cradle of our human 
life, where come to us the first dawnings of con- 
sciousness and of our adaptations to the manifold as- 
pects of this wonderful world of physical manifesta- 
tion. Life has to begin somewhere. And it has 
pleased the infinite Wisdom that our small beginnings 
should find their physical setting and theater on the 
surface of this planet. " For who hath despised the 
day of small things?" If it be objected that our 
brief life here is disproportionate to the stupendous 
future, it is enough to say that the all-important 
thing is the birth of a soul. " The beginning is half 
of the whole," 

THE ASCENT FROM CRUDE MATERIALITY TO 
THE REFINEMENT OF SPIRIT 

There is a crude materiality in our beginnings in 
many ways. We shall doubtless realize more clearly 
later on, as we cannot now, these gross material be- 
ginnings and the thick, coarse texture of this lower 
life. But we have learned from the science of life 
that the divine economy begins with crude material, 
and through constant molding and reshaping and re- 
fining ascends to higher forms. So the divine method 
of development is out of the lower material order 
into the higher spiritual order, out of the grossness of 



40 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

the physical into the refinement of the spirit, as out 
of the dark and dirty soil at our feet blossoms the 
white and fragrant lily. 

With what rhythmical antithesis does Paul set 
forth these two progressive orders of life! How 
strongly balanced, how ringing with conviction, and 
lighted up with vision, are the familiar words : 

" There are also celestial bodies and bodies terres- 
trial, but the glory of the celestial is one and the 
glory of the terrestrial is another." " It is sown in 
corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown 
in dishonor, it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weak- 
ness, it is raised in power." 

And how much we owe to Paul in thus definitely re- 
laying in the early days of Christianity the bases and 
boundaries of the two modes of existence! For this 
stream of thought has flowed down through the cen- 
turies, quickening and fertilizing our conceptions of 
the possibilities of spirit and a future life. 

But, we may add, while these two bases of existence 
are more or less imbedded in religious thought, it can- 
not be said that they stand together on equal and 
joint terms in the average mind. They are far from 
carrying the same sense of assurance, of reality, and 
vividness. For the subject of spirit has been so 
vague and nebulous in its conventional presentation, 
and has been thrust so far away into the unknown 
and supernatural, and unfortunately has been so lit- 
tle related to scientific thought, that its hold seems 
to be more traditional than real. We have to confess 
to a remoteness here in the minds of priest and peo- 
ple, and this remoteness has been conveniently 
charged to faith, and has found expression in symbol 



A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 41 

in giving a spatial remoteness to the spirit realm. 
But truth, like the path of the just, is as the shining 
light that shineth more and more. And science is 
again demonstrating its right to speak in meeting in 
this supremely important inquiry, and to affirm it- 
self an integral part of all revelation; and the dis- 
trust and aloofness of the past, from all mat- 
ters of a psychic nature and from all scientific 
treatment of the future life, will be lost in a clearer 
vision. 

We have taken these two bases of life, as it seemed 
fitting, with their evolutionary relationship and with 
their Christian setting by Paul, as an introduction to 
this testimony to a spiritual foundation. But we 
need something more specific. 

THE DEEPER INSIGHT INTO THE WORLD OF 

MATTER 

We need a deeper look here into the physical world, 
a look not possible in Paul's day. For the deeper the 
look and clearer the insight into that which is 
" natural," the nearer we shall come to a spiritual 
foundation. Chemistry and physics, which deal so 
profoundly with matter, have been revolutionized to 
some extent in this generation — like other depart- 
ments of human thought where certain basic ideas 
have found development. And their new vision of 
matter, its nature and possibilities and idealism, has 
been set forth in text-book and magazine till readers 
are tolerably familiar with these great new concep- 
tions. And in smoothing our way, we might take a 
general word of review here on the mysterious inward- 
ness of matter. 



42 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM 

Longfellow wrote, in the " Psalm of Life," " And 
things are not what they seem," and science strikingly 
confirms this truth in the case of matter ; matter is 
not what it seems. We are apt to judge of matter 
as it affects the senses ; we say it is heavy or light, 
hard or soft ; and when we have described its sensible 
properties in the way it affects us, we may think we 
have said all there is to be said. But with our super- 
ficial examination of matter — a piece of rock, a 
volume of water or gas — we know now we have only 
come to a beginning of an understanding. We have 
only entered the threshold of the truth; the great 
mysterious inner temple, the sanctuary of the truth, 
we have not entered at all. We see nothing, in fact, 
as it is ; we see only outlines and surfaces and colors; 
the real thing, the essence and inbeing of matter, is 
hid from us, somehow as God hides Himself — and in 
a way it is God hiding Himself. There is a hidden 
world of wonders in the stone or flower that would ap- 
pall us if our vision were magnified and intensified to 
a degree to take them in; worlds within worlds of 
molecules and atoms and electrons, worlds of order 
and affinity, full of life and intense activity. We 
have been speaking of matter as dead, but in these 
days we speak of it with awe as alive with divine en- 
ergy and a compact of intelligent force. The old- 
fashioned materialist had looked upon matter with 
complacency, and had supposedly and finally reduced 
all things to dull matter. When lo ! there is a stirring 
in the hidden depths, the bands of matter are loosed 
and there is a resurrection of new and unheard-of 



A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 43 

energy and subtlety, and matter proves itself per- 
versely to be strangely ideal. 

THE ROMANCE OF RADIO-ACTIVITY, AND ITS 
REVELATION OF THE INMOST DEPTHS OF 
MATTER 

The story belongs to the romance of science; the 
discovery of the mysterious metal radium by Madame 
Curie ; the strange fact that it emits rays of light and 
throws off continuously a stream of exceedingly mi- 
nute particles. And then came the generalization 
that not only radium, uranium, polonium, etc., but 
supposedly all bodies are more or less radio-active. 

All this meant that the old atom, so long indi- 
visible and ultimate and indestructible, must yield its 
honored position as the smallest possible constituent 
of matter to this new-comer. And this radio-active 
new-comer must naturally be baptized into the nomen- 
clature of science, and now the " electron " with its 
suggestive name has been for some time respectably 
and fully established in the family of this inner world. 
In brief, the scientists have determined that radium 
emits three distinct rays — the alpha, beta, and 
gamma rays ; and, as if this were not revolutionary 
enough, it also produces a radio-active emanation or 
gas which is 100,000 times as active as radium itself 
and has great phosphorescent powers. The beta rays 
are electrons with a speed like that of light ; the 
gamma rays, supposedly corpuscular, are endowed 
with singular penetrating power and have been found 
capable of passing before absorption through twenty 
centimeters or 7.8 inches of iron and several centi- 
meters of lead ; while the alpha rays are regarded as a 






44 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

stream of helium atoms. Such a remarkable flux and. 
alteration as this certainly throws new light on the 
mysterious inwardness of matter. It indicates, on 
the one hand, the dissolution of the unstable atom of 
radium with explosive violence, and it also indicates 
its resolution into another kind of atom by decrease 
of mass, with chemical and physical properties en- 
tirely distinct from the parent atom. It seems like 
going back to the magic of the Middle Ages to read 
that radium undergoes several transformations, and 
ionium changes directly into radium, and " there is 
considerable evidence that polonium changes into 
lead." 

HOW THE MATERIAL AND THE SPIRITUAL 
WORLDS RUN INTO ONE ANOTHER 

We can only add : What a breaking up of the old 
staid and respectable conservatism of matter is this, 
what unexpected fluidity, what a sudden and com- 
plete vanishing into the unseen! And it is all so 
strongly suggestive of the dissolution of all things 
into and their evolution from some primal source — 
the ether. No story of the imagination is so strange 
as this self-revelation of matter as to its inmost 
depths, and how in the last analysis it resolves itself 
into the invisible as a form of radiant energy. It 
clearly points to a truth that is finding expression 
more and more ; that the material and spiritual worlds 
are not separated by any hard and fast lines, but run 
into one another and are indissolubly connected. 
And do we not have a personal corroborative evidence 
of this close at hand in the vital commingling of the 
spirit body with the physical in this life? It cer- 



A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 45 

tainly would seem that the material world is but the 
borderland of the spiritual, and linking this with 
other higher disclosures, how natural the presump- 
tion that we are surrounded by the invisible, in- 
tangible, but intensely active world of the spirit? 

BUT THE ENERGY OF THE MATERIAL POINTS 
TO A HIGHER ENERGY OF THE SPIRITUAL 

But we find that energy is involved in this mys- 
terious inwardness and dissolution of matter, and 
there is a suggestion here that we might follow a step 
further. Is the world of spirit a world of weakness 
and feebleness, a world where the strong pulsations 
and throbbings and energies of life are not felt? 
Certainly we would not anticipate such a lifeless fu- 
ture from the energy of our material beginnings here. 

We must discard the notion that matter is inert, 
matter-of-fact, lumpish, and created out of nothing. 
On the contrary, we are finding that in a bit of mat- 
ter there is life and mystery and romance that seem 
to suggest and open up all worlds, and carry us into 
the infinite. Matter is an enormous reservoir of en- 
ergy, of interatomic energy, of terrible, pent-up, 
locked-up energy. Faraday defined matter in sub- 
stance as a point of force or vehicle of energy; but 
the definition has taken on new verification and em- 
phasis. And the energy of matter cannot forever 
be imprisoned; its stability may be broken up, and 
the hidden powers released in irrepressible outburst, 
and the bottled-up genii summoned forth and put to 
service. Matter must needs be transmuted into force. 
In other words, the interatomic energy resident in 
all matter must be liberated, and nature and man are 



46 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

forever engaged in this work. Through the dissocia- 
tions of atoms, energy in its stable forms is trans- 
formed into all its unstable forms ; and we have light, 
and heat, and electricity, and the magical transforma- 
tions and endless atomic rearrangements of chemis- 
try. 

And very clearly all this material force, stable and 
unstable, terrible and swift as light when released, 
manifesting itself in the works of nature and man, in 
chemical affinity, and all the glories of radiant energy, 
shows us what a compact of energy is the world we 
live in. And they do more than this — they make 
us question what higher energies we shall prophesy 
of the world of spirit, and what waiting possibilities 
of creative wisdom. 

In that refined sphere, where the encasement is not 
heavy and gross as here, what manifestations of power 
and motion and vision and thought may we not reason- 
ably anticipate far surpassing the energies of earth! 
As we pass from the coarse and heavy outer stages 
and aspects of nature to the more refined and spiritual 
modes of expression, the more subtle and powerful 
are her forces. Despite the latent energy of matter, 
matter itself is outwardly heavy and clogging, and 
everything points to the fact that this is the slow 
and dull stage of our existence ; while the other stage 
has been fittingly represented with wings and halos 
and swift angelic messengers and supernal glories, to 
indicate its increased energy and radiance. God 
plans no backward course and takes no backward 
steps. " As yet we see in a mirror dimly, but then 
face to face." " Sown weak, it rises strong ; sown a 



A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 47 

human bod} r , it rises a spiritual body ; as surely as 
there is a human body, there is also a spiritual body," 
is the way Paul writes in the Twentieth-Century New 
Testament. 






CHAPTER IV 
MARVELS OF THE ETHER 

" Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the 
heavens are the work of thy hands." 

In this testimony to a spiritual foundation, we have 
so far dwelt upon the two bases of existence, and the 
deeper insight into the world of matter. This natur- 
ally brings us to a third point, which is really our 
main consideration and the great fact to be noticed in 
discussing the substantial aspect of the spirit world, 
and that is — the ether ; the marvels and potencies of 
the ether. To this end, let us briefly run over cer- 
tain properties and principally accepted conclusions 
in regard to the ether, while we deduce in connection 
some estimate of the psychic significance of this 
fundamental substance, which is the issue we are 
chiefly concerned about. The article, " aether," in 
the last edition of the " Encyclopedia Britannica " is 
a helpful account ; Clerk Maxwell, Saleeby, etc., have 
many interesting things to say ; but an especially full 
and fascinating exposition is " The Ether of Space " 
by Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. 

It is one of the books which is worth while to read 
and re-read. 

HOW THE ETHER SPEAKS FOR ITSELF 

In a preliminary way, we might let the ether evi- 
dentially speak a word here for itself. The ether 

48 



MARVELS OF THE ETHER 49 

is not a mere conjecture, but the necessity for such 
a medium has long been realized — a medium far more 
subtle and penetrating and responsive than ordinary 
matter. It has been proved, as by the eclipses of 
Jupiter's satellites and by aberration, that light takes 
time in passing from one body to another. The evi- 
dent conclusion then is, that if light occupies time in 
traveling, either matter or energy must be transferred 
from a body to the eye before we can see it. This 
naturally gave rise to the two rival theories of light 
— the old corpuscular and the undulatory. The 
corpuscular theory of Newton supposed light to con- 
sist of material particles which by their impact upon 
the eye produce the sensation of light. But insuper- 
able objections at length appeared in the utter failure 
of this theory to explain various optical phenomena, 
and in reconciling the impact of material particles of 
such exceeding velocity with the delicate structure of 
the eye. No other hypothesis was admissible but the 
undulatory, which finally satisfied all tests and thor- 
oughly established itself in science. Huygens pro- 
pounded this theory, which assumes from the analogy 
of sound in air and of waves in water the idea of the 
existence in all space of a highly elastic fluid — the 
ether. 

Sir Oliver Lodge now affirms that such a wave 
theory of light is quite certainly true, and for well- 
nigh a century it has been an accepted truth. He 
adds : " Waves we cannot have, unless they be waves 
in something." Ordinary matter transmits waves at 
a comparatively low speed — the velocity of sound in 
air being 1090 feet per second — while light waves 
travel at the well-known velocity of 186,000 miles 



50 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

per second, journeying from the sun to the earth in 
eight minutes. Hence this new medium, the lumi- 
niferous medium, must transcend the category of ordi- 
nary matter ; and it has been named the ether, from a 
Greek word, to burn, indicating its alliance to fire in 
its subtle nature. 

Lord Kelvin expresses himself in these words : 
" That there must be a medium forming a continuous 
material communication throughout space to the re- 
motest visible body, is a fundamental assumption in 
the undulatory theory of light. Its existence is a 
fact that cannot be questioned, when the overwhelm- 
ing evidence in favor of the undulatory theory is 
considered." 

And we may add, what a wonderful endowment do 
we possess in the eye as a receptacle for these delicate 
waves and a mirror for their images ! We are not 
shut away from the ethereal floods of light, impris- 
oned in darkness, so that the story of the ether 
comes to us as unreal and illusive. But here we have 
a sensitive spot so specialized, that it has become as- 
tonishingly responsive to vibratory impressions — im- 
pressions that make their impact upon the retina in 
billions a second. And so the eye, whose psychic 
significance is second only to the brain, enables us to 
respond to this most spiritual of all appeals in nature, 
the appeal of the ether. And so the eye, beholding as 
in a glass the glories of the ether and the color 
splashes of sunset and rainbow, and imaging the 
countless objects and beauties of nature, adds its 
sense testimony to science. 

Those who, like Thomas, must touch and handle 
and see directly, need to be reminded that " No man 



MARVELS OF THE ETHER 51 

hath seen God at any time," and yet " in him we live 
and move and have our being." A religious cult may 
speak lightly of the existence of the ether because, 
forsooth, it does not affect demonstratively the senses 
and may afford a substantial realism to matter, but it 
is shallow reasoning. If we insist on demonstrative 
and absolute evidence at every step in life, we shall 
find ourselves denying about everything. 

1 Oh ! where is the sea ? ' the fishes cried 
As they swam the crystal clearness through, 
' We've heard from of old of the ocean's tide, 
And we long to look on the waters blue. 
The wise ones speak of an infinite sea, 
Oh, who can tell us if such there be ! ' " 

CONTINUITY OF THE ETHER 

First, the ether is continuous. It fills all space and 
permeates all bodies, it is the interplanetary and 
interstellar connecting medium. We are not sepa- 
rated from the rest of the universe by vast deserts of 
vacuity or regions of space nearly empty, as has been 
conceived in the past, but we are connected in all 
directions with the planets and suns by the medium 
of the ether, which some physicists pronounce the 
densest of all known substances. 

Clerk Maxwell says here : " The vast interplane- 
tary and interstellar regions will no longer be re- 
garded as waste places in the universe, which the 
Creator has not seen fit to fill with the symbols of 
the manifold order of His kingdom. We shall find 
them to be already full of this wonderful medium, so 
full that no human power can remove it from the 
smallest portion of space, or produce the slightest 



52 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

flaw in its infinite continuity. It extends unbroken 
from star to star. And when a molecule of hydro- 
gen vibrates in the dog star, this medium receives the 
impulses of these vibrations, and after carrying them 
in its immense bosom for several years, delivers them 
in due course, regular order, and full tale, into the 
spectroscope of Mr. Huggins at Tulse Hill." 

So we are not to conceive of the gulfs of space sur- 
rounding and shutting us in as an endless void, but 
as full of connecting substance, fundamental sub- 
stance. 

INCOMPRESSIBILITY OR DENSITY OF THE ETHER 

And this ether, science asserts, is incompressible. 
And if a substance is incompressible, that means that 
it is the densest substance known. This seems a 
startling inference at first thought. Rut this does 
not mean by any means that the ether presents it- 
self or impinges upon our senses after the uncom- 
promising fashion of iron or rock. A substance may 
be of such a refined ordeV, and so unrelated to our 
present senses, that while it may be extremely dense, 
it may yet not be cognizable by us directly. The 
subtle ether offers no resistance to a moving body 
and is not displaced by it, but passes through it, some- 
how as air and water pass through a sieve. So the 
ether may be extremely dense and yet so subtle that it 
is inappreciable by us. 

Rut why is the ether regarded as incompressible? 
For the ether has been thought of until late investi- 
gations as a light and rarefied substance. Now if we 
turn to matter, we find that the physicist considers 
that matter in its constitution and density is very like 



MARVELS OF THE ETHER 53 

the cosmos. It is asserted that in the vast extent of 
the cosmos the bulk of actual matter is very small, 
" almost incredibly small*" as compared with the 
volume of empty space. This was confirmed by the 
calculations of Lord Kelvin. According to this, we 
are to think of matter as composed of separated par- 
ticles or material nuclei, so called, with great inter- 
vening distances in proportion to the size of the 
nuclei. Principal Lodge describes matter as " a very 
porous and gossamer-like substance, with interspaces 
great as compared with the spaces actually occupied 
by the nuclei which constitute it." Now this of course 
makes the massiveness or density of ordinary matter, 
as water or iron, very small as compared with the un- 
modified ether in which they exist. For " it is not 
unreasonable to argue that the density of a continuum 
is necessarily greater than the density of any discon- 
nected aggregate. Because the former is * all there ' 
everywhere, without break or intermittence of any 
kind, while the latter has gaps in it — it is here and 
there but not everywhere." In short, assuming the 
electrical theory of matter or the electron nature of 
the nucleus, for which there is " a large amount of 
justification and which all scientists see looming up 
before them," the ethereal density is laid down as of 
the order 10 12 times that of water. 

It seems evident, then, that the ether constituting a 
continuum in space and continuously filling the 
interstices between the nuclei of matter, must be 
of infinitesimal fineness and therefore incompress- 
ible. Nothing more fundamental or dense can 
be conceived than such a binding and pervasive 
ether. 



54 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

A HINT AT THE PSYCHIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 

ETHER 

Now, as we follow on in this ethereal path, we can 
hardly fail to note at every step how rich in psychic 
suggestions and possibilities is this many-sided 
medium. And as prefacing this thought, let us cite 
the prophetic utterances of two authorities, who have 
given this subject much profound study and experi- 
mentation. 

Clerk Maxwell raises the question, " whether this 
vast homogeneous expanse of isotropic matter is fitted 
not only to be a medium of physical interaction be- 
tween distant bodies and to fulfill other physical func- 
tions, but also whether it is not fitted to constitute 
the material organism of beings exercising functions 
of life and mind as high or higher than ours at pres- 
ent?" 

These words reveal the open mind on the part of 
this scientist, and suggest substantial possibilities of 
the ether other than as a medium for light. Reports 
from the other side indicate spirit as ultimate, in- 
visible matter, but in its subtlety and powers it must 
be closely allied to the ether. And we may well as- 
sume, as reports clearly indicate, that the ether has 
functions in the spirit world and appeals to the 
heightened senses of spirit as it cannot appeal to our 
dull senses here. 

Sir Oliver Lodge in a like vein says : " The uni- 
verse we are living in is an extraordinary one. We 
know that matter has a psychical significance since it 
can constitute brain, which links together the phys- 
ical and the psychical worlds. If any one thinks that- 
the ether, with all its massiveness and energy, has 



MARVELS OF THE ETHER 



55 



probably no psychical significance, I find myself un- 
able to agree with him." 



THE ETHER BRIDGES ALL CHASMS, AND PERME- 
ATES ALL SUBSTANCE, AND BINDS ALL THINGS 
INTO A SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE 

We have noted how the scientist has come to re- 
gard the ether as continuous and incompressible. 
And does not this take us along our way or a long 
way toward a spiritual foundation? The ether 
bridges all chasms even the appalling and unthinkable 
stretches of space, and we are no longer separated 
from our celestial neighbors by immense voids, but we 
are connected and imbedded in the most subtle and re- 
sponsive, the densest and most energetic, of all media. 
And we can hardly doubt that in this binding and uni- 
fication of the ether, the worlds are constituted a real 
spiritual universe and are become members of a spirit- 
ual commonwealth without bounds. We can no longer 
conceive of the worlds as imprisoned in eternal lone- 
liness ; the palpitating oceans of ether intensely alive 
and impressionable have like the oceans of earth 
joined all continuents. As the particles of an iron 
rod are held together through the mediation of the 
ether, and if we pull one end the whole rod follows 
after, so we may say that the constituent particles of 
the cosmos, the enormous suns and their satellites, are 
linked and bridged together in unity, and we can 
find no reason to doubt in spiritual intercommunica- 
tion. We do not feel the full force of this in our 
present physical phase, but we may well believe that 
the free spirit will rise up into this expanded vision, 
and will find a larger liberty and citizenship than it 



56 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

ever dreamed of on earth. Spirit so vitally related 
to the ether must, we cannot doubt, be entirely at 
home in this medium of such mysterious potencies, 
and must be able to transport itself therein as the 
bird in the air or the fish in the sea, but with a move- 
ment and ease and power for which we have no paral- 
lel on earth. And we add, testimonies from the other 
side unmistakably confirm this conclusion. 

The Hebrew heaven has enlarged the place of its 
tent. The word " heaven " is based upon the verb 
" heave " meaning something which is heaved up, and 
it had its beginning upon some mountain top, or the 
dome of our sky. But with our modern outlook into 
the infinite regions and the possibilities of ether and 
spirit, the old heaven has passed away with its set 
bounds and limitations, its walls and gates, and the 
new heaven has become co-extensive with the uni- 
verse. Thus all things run into the infinite at last, 
from the flower and pebble at our feet to the concep- 
tions incident to our span of years and our narrow 
space. 

ELASTICITY OF THE ETHER, AND ITS MARVEL- 
OUS AND VARIED VIBRATIONS 

Again, as we follow on, we find that the elasticity 
of the ether is not the least wonderful thing about this 
wonderful fluid. How surpassing all words and 
imagination is this elasticity and delicate responsive- 
ness of the ether to vibratory impression! How it 
fills space with its inconceivably minute quiverings and 
radiance, bathing our earth in floods of light, and 
bringing us into visual touch with worlds beyond. 
As a near example, we have doubtless noted the street 
electric light shining through a misty veil. We have 



MARVELS OF THE ETHER 57 

seen it dart out numberless, needle-like rays and flash- 
ing bands of light in all directions, making a globe 
of dazzling brilliance and piercing the gulf between it 
and the eye with light bridges finer than gossamer, 
and giving us some idea of what the ether can do when 
it gets busy. In the phenomena of solar light and 
heat, we say that the rapid vibrations of the disen- 
gaged particles in the intense heat of the solar atmos- 
phere impart their vibratory motions to the elastic 
ether. And these agitations of the ether after span- 
ning the intervening gulf and breaking upon the 
sensitive nerves of the eye and body in billions of 
waves, bring us to the blessed consciousness of the 
beauty and order and warmth of our home here on 
the earth. 

Now the elasticity of the ether is especially seen 
in these vibrations from side to side, and which, as 
they are fast or slow, have the most varied results 
upon us. Some of these vibrations we are fearfully 
and wonderfully adapted to perceive, but of the actual 
extent of oscillation of which the ether is capable, a 
vast range is for us, as at present constituted, " un- 
explored territory." While the ear responds to air 
vibrations between 40 and 40,000 per second, the 
retina more highly sensitized responds to ether vibra- 
tions of between 400 billions and 700 billions per 
second. How strange that at this inconceivably high 
pitch, we should possess an organ fitted to serve as an 
intelligent receiver! 

INVISIBLE RAYS OR DARK LIGHT 

But between the highest audible, 40,000 per second, 
and the lowest visible, 400 billions per second, there 



58 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

is a great gap for which we have no intermediate sense 
organ. But " waves have been there all the time in 
any quantity." A vast deal of light is invisible or 
dark light, according to science. While the color 
rays of the spectrum are visible to us, there are ultra- 
violet rays and infra-red rays which are invisible, but 
which affect a photographic plate and pictures have 
been made by them which show us a strange world in- 
deed. And far below the infra-red, the vibrations 
set up when a Ley den jar is discharged are said to be 
from 100,000 to 1,000,000 per second, but they are 
too slow for the eye. " It is light, just as good as 
any other light. It travels at the same pace, it is re- 
flected and refracted according to the same laws, every 
experiment known to optics can be performed with it, 
and yet we cannot see it." Why not? we ask. The 
short-coming is not in the light, it is in the eye ; it is 
simply not given to us, the eye is not organized to 
gaze into this world of low vibration. Neither is it 
given to us to gaze into the higher worlds of the 
higher vibrations, they are beyond our present sense 
powers. Beyond the 700 billion range, we may feel 
certain there are worlds of vibration of endless extent 
though at present inaccessible territory to us. 

Somewhere is the world of spirit. And where shall 
we anticipate and locate it but in this high range of 
vibration beyond us, a vibration befitting its more re- 
fined constitution and higher powers? The short- 
sighted sceptic may be inclined to disbelieve in spirit 
world and spirit body, because forsooth, he cannot see 
them now as he sees the buildings and people on the 
street. But has it been decreed from the foundation 
of the world that our range of vision shall be fixed 



MARVELS OF THE ETHER 59 

between 400 and 700 billion pulsations, and beyond, 
the universe is forever barred out? Are these fleshly 
eyes all the eyes there are? Certainly it does not 
seem reasonable in a progressively evolving world and 
postulating man as the child of God, that our circum- 
scribed vision here shall never be transcended. We 
must be short-sighted indeed to hold seriously that 
this coarse material round is all the vibratory message 
that is open to us, and there are no more worlds to 
see. No, it is more reasonable to hold with Paul that 
now we see dimly but then face to face. 

THE DIVERSIFIED MANIFESTATIONS AND 
FUNCTIONING OF THE ETHER WAVES 

And how diversified are the manifestations of these 
unthinkably fine ether waves, and how amazing is their 
functioning. Electricity has not lost its myster}^, but 
we now recognize it as a form of ether vibration of a 
definite rate. And how great is the debt of humanity 
here in motor power, and long-distance writing and 
hearing — and what the future holds yet in store in 
electrical developments and appliances, we know not. 
The Hertzian waves are said to be a little faster, and 
wireless telegraphy is made possible. And how can 
" they who go down to the sea in ships " now dispense 
with their sympathetic appeal, when sudden danger 
looms up and they face the horror of the iceberg or 
fire or collision. The papers report that at the naval 
observatory in Washington the operators have picked 
up communications sent out from a great German 
wireless tower 3000 miles or more distant. How in- 
terpretative this subtly-piercing ether disturbance has 
proved to be. Then certain ethereal quiverings give 



60 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

us radiant heat, or the chemical rays, and it is easily 
said that the earth would speedily become a desert 
solitude without the generous floods of solar heat. 
Then these excessively minute shimmerings are re- 
sponsible by their degree of absorption for the 
memory word, vibgyor, we learned at school, or the 
seven primary colors. And who can estimate how 
much these add to the beauty and glow of the world? 
Who can say how much the great color scheme of na- 
ture on sky and land and sea, and the diverse tints 
and color glories of the flowery kingdom, add to the 
general esthetic richness and enjoyment of life? 

THE UNIVERSE IS LARGER THAN IT SEEMS 

And with this passing reference to the ethereal di- 
versity of manifestation, which the alphabet may not 
suffice in time to distinguish, our proposition is 
plain when we assert that the universe is larger than 
it seems. Our universe has not only become more ex- 
tensive but more intensive, for we are coming into a 
larger appreciation and vision of an interior spiritual 
universe, of a universe within a universe. 

" I know there are sounds I cannot hear, 

And sights I cannot see; 
There are numberless doors in the universe, 

Of which I have not the key." 

Science compels us to recognize the limitations of our 
senses. Principal Lodge lays down that our " little 
fragment of total radiation is in itself trivial and in- 
significant." Evidently all radiations are not for us 
here. Most amazing is the radiant energy of the sun ; 
but of its enormous outflow of heat, the earth, which 



MARVELS OF THE ETHER 61 

is only a point in the glory of its spherical radiance, 
receives it is said only one part in two billion. And 
we need not be surprised that there are higher and 
finer radiations with which we are not yet acquainted, 
and for which we are not yet fitted. Our sensory 
range from all accounts seems to be only a narrow 
strip of the universe, which on either hand stretches 
off from the limited into the unlimited. 

The world of sound we may well assume to be larger 
than it seems. A great scientist has claimed that if 
our ears could compass vibrations enough, we could 
hear the flowers growing in the night with a loud 
noise. So we might be thankful that at this stage 
of being we do not hear everything. But we have 
good reason to think that there are higher and more 
delicate auditory vibrations, evidently ethereal vibra- 
tions, and that these will be a part of our larger 
sensory equipment in the larger universe of the spirit. 
We seem to have a precursor of this quickened hear- 
ing in the phenomenon of clairaudience among certain 
sensitives in the body here. We cannot well suppose 
that our auditory impressions will always be con- 
fined to the low range of 40 to 40,000, and we would 
certainly assume finer auditory media in the spirit 
than the air and liquids and solids of earth. 

Spirit testimony is to the point here, and the reader 
can judge the following spirit testimony from 
" Flashes of Light " for himself. 

" Yes, we do have that which is equivalent to sound. 
It is such to the disembodied spirit. It would not be 
such to you, because the applications could not be 
made successfully to your human senses. The audi- 
tory nerves would not vibrate under the sound that 



62 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

belongs to the spirit world proper, but the auditory 
nerves of the spirit body will vibrate under the sounds 
of the spirit world. Every condition of life is regu- 
lated by its own special laws." That the world of 
sound should take on new and higher phases and ex- 
pressions in the spirit, is certainly in accord with the 
natural evolutionary order of life. 

And what is true of the ear in its area of sound, is 
of course true of the eye in its area of vision, and in 
a still larger way. We live in the midst of an in- 
visible world in which we cannot doubt there are an 
infinite number of realities of which we have no visual 
knowledge. It would be folly to imagine that a per- 
son or thing cannot exist, just because we cannot see 
or hear it with our dull senses. We are subject to 
an illusion here, when we think we see or hear all. 
For at first we do not suspect, as has been said, the 
poverty of our senses, it is the general poverty of the 
world about us, and what is general affords no basis 
for comparison. But in spite of our dull short- 
sightedness, the universe stretches on and on and runs 
into the infinite and unseen. The crude and tempo- 
rary beginnings and narrow quarters are here, the 
timelessness and spaciousness are over there. Flam- 
marion, the astronomer and well-known student of 
psychic matters writes : " All that you know 
through the medium of your terrestrial senses, is as 
nothing compared to what is." And this seems en- 
tirely reasonable, for the countless millions of our 
earth alone must require a roominess of space and 
wealth of furnishings that we could connect only with 
the pure and lofty conception of infolding spiritual 
spheres extending far into the ethereal region. 



MARVELS OF THE ETHER 63 

There can be no doubt that when we come to our 
spiritual vision, the larger world of vibration will be 
in much higher degree accessible to us, and we shall 
experience an endless unfoldment of reality beyond our 
present knowledge. The universe is larger than it 
seems. Dr. Young, who helped to establish the vibra- 
tory theory of light by his discovery of wave inter- 
ference, is quoted as committing himself distinctly to 
the opinion that we may be surrounded on every hand 
by other worlds, invisible, intangible to us, and that 
inhabited spheres may be all about us. 

SPIRITUAL TELEGRAPHY 

But there is another thought we might look upon as 
suggested at least by this amazing elastic responsive- 
ness of the ether. We hold that undoubtedly there is 
such a thing as spiritual telegraphy or the telepathic 
transmission of prayer and sympathy and thought 
force. I think many of us have had experiences that 
have brought uncompromising conviction that there is 
such a pathway of light between souls, and between 
souls here and over there. And while one would not 
dogmatize here in a matter so subtle and unexplored, 
we may just note a certain suggestiveness this way in 
this etherealizing and spiritualizing of the universe. 
In these inconceivably sensitive and swift ether vibra- 
tions, may it not be possible there lie a medium and 
pathway for spirit outreaching? Is not prayer an 
uprush and outreaching of spiritual energy, and does 
not every effort of earnest concentration for touch 
with souls and every striving of love involve an out- 
put of electric force? We know that psychic investi- 
gators consider that no satisfactory solution of the 



64 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

problem of thought transference is yet at hand. But 
one may at least surmise that in this extreme delicacy 
of the ether and somewhere in the vast unexplored 
territory of its manifold vibrations, there may exist 
the requisite conditions for forms of impulse and im- 
pact that are interpreted by the spirit as thought and 
sympathy. We live in a world of vibrations. And 
may it not be that the energy of radiant light and 
warmth and the higher spiritual energies, have some- 
thing in common in finding their way to their goal ? 

If this be so, the ether has fresh interest for us ; it 
appeals to us in a most intimate and spiritual sense, 
it presents itself as a mediating friend. It not only 
floods the eye with its waves and billows, and brings 
us out of the isolation and prison of the body, but it 
serves as a bond for linking souls in communion. 
The spirit automatic writer of " Interwoven " asserts 
that the ether waves are everywhere, surrounding 
everything, filling the universe, touching the brain, 
the eardrum, the eye, and through these multitudinous, 
enveloping waves all the world can be in rapport. 
We have every reason to believe that our prayers im- 
pinge upon our friends in the spirit and blaze their 
path someway. In the work cited we have this from 
the other side : " Every prayer your spirit makes 
we hear. It comes on our heads as a small gentle 
touch and on our hearts as a knock." They tell us 
over there that they know when we think of them. 
How alive with sensitive responsiveness must be the 
communicative powers of that world far exceeding 
our beginnings here ! We have thought of our 
heavens as closed, as the ancients conceived of the 
blue dome above as solid crystal, but the blue dome is 



MARVELS OF THE ETHER 65 

only the blue tinge of the atmosphere seen through 
a depth of many miles. 

" Moreover all living things act and react upon 
each other through intervening space by means of 
several kinds of etheric wave energy," is another spirit 
statement directly to the point and from an ac- 
credited source. " The spirit or inner consciousness 
liberates a series of thought waves generated through 
electro-magnetism within the human brain. Thought 
waves may be thus continued through unlimited space 
should sensitive minds be acted upon as receivers." 

And the sensitiveness of the spirit mind we cannot 
fully apprehend in our present coarse organisms. 

Do we fear our loving thought will miscarry? In 
a message purporting to come from W. T. Stead 
shortly after the sinking of the Titamc — a message 
I can see no reason to doubt as to its genuineness — 
are these words : " It is the supreme law of the 
spirit that you reach the one you intend to reach. 
The wireless of the spirit does not get caught by 
irresponsible craft that stops the message from going 
to the intended receiver. The wireless of the spirit 
reaches the object intended." But whatever our 
theory, this truth of spiritual transmission and com- 
munion will assert itself more and more, and it is 
only the newness and bewilderment of a new mode of 
activity that makes the thing seem unbelievable. 
Love bridges all chasms and can never lose its own, 
because the highway over which love is interpreted 
was laid in the anticipatory thought of God from the 
foundation of the world. 



CHAPTER V 

SOMETHING MORE ABOUT THE ETHER, 
ITS ENERGY AND BASIC NATURE 

But there is one more aspect of the ether which 
is especially rich in spiritual suggestiveness and 
promise. It is the remarkable property of energy, 
or energy combined with density, and it takes us still 
further on our way to a spiritual foundation. 

LORD KELVIN'S KINETIC THEORY OF 
ROTATIONAL MOTION 

A common notion of the ether as an extremely 
rarefied, inert, gaseous fluid filling space with next 
to nothing, does not convey any striking impression 
of energy or basic importance. But we have come to 
see that the ether is very far from being such an 
unreal, lifeless ghost of substance. It is substance 
itself, though not coarse matter, with definite proper- 
ties of its own that carry the conviction of tremen- 
dous possibilities and primal energy. While we speak 
of the stable and unstable energies of matter, much 
more can we now speak of the fundamental energies 
of the ether. And first we may note the law of ethe- 
real circulation or rotational motion. Lord Kelvin 
was enabled to let much light on the problem of the 
ether and its elastic energy by propounding the cele- 
brated kinetic theory thereof now in general accept- 
ance. Lord Kelvin laid down that the elastic 

strength of the ether " must be due to rotational mo- 

66 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 67 

tion, intimate fine-grained motion throughout the 
whole ethereal region, vortex motion of a kind far 
more finely-grained than any waves of light, or any 
atomic or even electronic structure." This is cer- 
tainly a wonderful law, but we are in a wonderful 
world, and this movement is clearly akin to the vari- 
ous other elemental movements. And it is this in- 
finitesimal rotational circulation with the predi- 
cated velocity of light, in combination with the esti- 
mate of its density, which makes the internal energy 
of the ether so gigantic. It is a strain on the 
imagination as well as the ether to read the con- 
clusion of the physicist that a cubic millimeter of 
ether thus squirming internally with the speed of 
light, must possess the equivalent of a thousand 
tons. 

THE SECRET OF THE ELASTIC ENERGY AND 
STRENGTH OF THE ETHER IN ITS ROTATIONAL 
CIRCULATION 

And it is here we get some clear conception of the 
secret of the wonderful elastic energy of the ether 
which is manifested in such various ways. And we 
are told that " more functions will almost certainly be 
discovered." This elastic energy is seen in the 
electro-magnetic transmission of light waves and in 
the transmission of the great forces of the universe — 
gravitational attraction, the power of cohesion in the 
particles of an iron rod, and the pull of the magnet. 
The physicist makes three simple affirmations here: 
Contact does not exist between the atoms of matter, 
as it does not between worlds ; there can be no attrac- 
tion across empty space, there must be a connecting 



68 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

medium ; and " matter acts on matter only through 
the ether." And matter is enabled to act and react 
upon itself in different ways through the immense 
elastic energy of the intervening rotational ether. 
The force with which the moon is held in its orbit and 
swung around the earth, Principal Lodge says, is 
great enough to tear asunder a steel rod four hun- 
dred miles thick, and even the gravitational pull of 
distant Sirius is estimated at thirty million tons. 
Now this force, like all force, must be transmitted 
through the ether, it can reach us in no other way. 
And it forcibly reminds us of the enormous energy 
and strength that must be stored up in this medium 
in order to be able to meet and handle such enormous 
tension. In like manner molecular attraction in co- 
hesion is conveyed through the ether, the binding 
medium is the ether. What is true here in the 
macrocosm is true in the microcosm. And when a 
steel spring is bent, the potential energy or tendency 
to recoil is charged to the elastic strain of the ether. 
We say the atoms of the spring are displaced and 
brought nearer, but this increase of atomic attrac- 
tion simply gives greater tension and strain to the 
binding ether. In short, Principal Lodge asserts 
that elastic rigidity and all potential energy exist in 
the ether. It would seem then that the ether is not 
such a weak and utterly tenuous, and so inoperative 
and useless a thing outside of light as once supposed. 

THE SECRET OF ALL SUBSTANCE IN THE 
ROTATIONAL ETHER 

And finally the secret of matter itself, and we may 
add of spirit substance the ultimate refinement of 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 69 

matter, is to be found here in the rotational energy of 
the ether, or of the ether differentiated as the elec- 
tron. It would be difficult to say beforehand how 
many distinct classes of substance the ether is capable 
of sustaining and infilling. That must be left to the 
Infinite Wisdom with its unexpected disclosures. 
" Who by searching can find out God ? " 

But first, how does the electron come in? Princi- 
pal Lodge describes the electron as a minute struc- 
ture of ether, appallingly minute. The ether does 
not seem to lend itself to form directly. Electrons 
are modifications, certain irregularities, or peculiari- 
ties of the ether, which, as a help to mental imaging, 
are compared to a knot in a string. The electron 
has the same density as the ether, its mass is de- 
termined as one thousandth part of the atomic mass 
of hydrogen, and it is the same in all the infinite 
variety of substance. In its essence the electron is 
a concentrated unit or charge of electricity, and the 
atom is an aggregate of an equal number of positive 
and negative electrons in rapid rotation. The ro- 
tational energy of the ether is the rotational energy 
of the electron, as the rotational energy of the sun or 
the primeval nebula is imparted to the earth. We 
can have no difficulty then in postulating that the 
ethereal electron in its endless arrangements and 
aggregations may account for all needed phases of 
substance, the coarsest and most refined and the most 
widely separated. 

But how does the rotation and differentiation of 
the ether give us matter? How is it possible for sub- 
stance, matter or spirit, to take form and stability 
from the whirling ether? The answer or principle 



70 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

is, in brief — that a fluid in motion can imitate the 
properties of a solid. It is well known that an object 
in very rapid rotation or movement, though loose in 
its structure, takes on a certain rigidity and tends to 
maintain position. "A jet of water at sufficient 
speed can be struck with a hammer and resists being 
cut with a sword." It is asserted that a layer of 
water animated by sufficient velocity would be as 
impervious to shells as the steel plates of an iron- 
clad. An invisible fluid like the air whirling in the 
form of a cyclone can strike with most destructive 
energy. Or a flexible chain set spinning can stand 
upon end, and it seems that Lord Kelvin originated 
a model of a spring balance made of nothing but rigid 
bodies in spinning motion. (" Ether of Space," page 
120.) Says Le Bon: " Gaseous vortices with a ra- 
pidity of rotation like that of cathode rays, would in 
all probability become as hard as steel." And this 
distinguished physicist adds : " It is probable that 
matter owes its rigidity only to the rapidity of the 
rotary motion of its elements, and that if their move- 
ment stopped, it would instantaneously vanish into 
ether without leaving a trace behind." And the fol- 
lowing from such an authority as Professor Dolbear 
will help us on our way : " We have hints that what 
we have called particles of matter are vortex rings 
of ether, getting their energy from the ether, the 
ultimate substance out of which all things are made. 
We know enough now about matter to know that 
every particle of it is alive." 

So it has come to pass in the natural order of 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 71 

physics, that the ether differentiated as a vortex ring 
or electrified speck is regarded as constituting in its 
rotations and potentialities the substratum of all 
matter. And we cannot doubt that all substance, 
visible and invisible, convincingly appealing to our 
present senses or making little or no appeal, must 
be traced directly or indirectly to this universal basic 
ether. On the one hand we must be very unmindful 
of vibrational facts and possibilities to pessimis- 
tically assume that there exists for us no higher and 
brighter worlds. And on the other hand we must be 
very unmindful of rotational energies and basic pow- 
ers to dismiss lightly and thoughtlessly the etheric 
origin of matter and the spirit foundation of a spirit 
world. Our whole lesson thus far is most clear — 
our lesson tends directly to the psychic significance 
of the ether. Our lesson is, that there may be and 
undoubtedly are higher forms of substance more ap- 
proximate to the ether in fineness of essence and vi- 
bration and constituting worlds and embodiments 
far exceeding in their powers our limited observation 
here. 

Sir Oliver Lodge speaks of the " vast though as 
yet largely unrecognized importance of the ether of 
space." And it seems fitting to close this thought 
of the basic nature of the ether with these words from 
his Introduction : " I am able to advocate a view 
of the ether which makes it not only uniformly pres- 
ent and all-pervading, but also massive and substan- 
tial beyond conception. It is turning out to be by 
far the most substantial thing — perhaps the only 
substantial thing in the material universe." 



72 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

PLENTY OF MATERIAL FOR ANY NUMBER OF 
SPIRIT WORLDS 

" For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God." 

It would surely seem then to any reasonable mind 
that we have no occasion to worry about spirit. We 
need not be unduly anxious lest there be no material 
in the universe sufficiently fine and strong which may 
serve as an adequate basis in some way for spirit 
substance. There seems to be no call for apprehen- 
sion lest the divine wisdom and its creative resources 
be exhausted by one world or one phase of existence, 
lest the Creator who rested on the seventh day from 
the material creation has been resting ever since. 
It would look as though the Wisdom that can dif- 
ferentiate the electron and build up the solid particle 
by motion, could also find a loom for weaving spirit 
substance. It really seems too late to stumble over 
the ancient question — " How are the dead raised up, 
and with what body do they come? " The Corin- 
thians may have had intelligible reasons for their dis- 
belief in spirit; but with the insight of this age into 
the subtleties and energies, the anticipations and 
provisions of the universe it does not seem worth 
while to stumble. We have everything we want, 
materials in endless abundance in the ether spaces or 
matter organic and inorganic for constructing any 
number of spirit worlds and spirit bodies. Modern 
study of the ether brings us face to face with the 
conclusion that the ether is potential matter, and po- 
tential substance in all its forms from the grossest to 
the most spiritual. Matter itself has become spirit- 
ualized by the new physics, so that now and here we 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 73 

live in a spiritual universe, spiritualized intensively 
and extensively. It would seem then that no 
thoughtful and reverent soul in the face of the phys- 
ical wonders about us, need stumble over such nat- 
ural and seemingly inevitable phenomena as the sur- 
vival of spirit after bodily death and the existence 
of a spirit world about us. 

WHAT A MAGICAL SUBSTANCE ! 

How it fills the dizzy spaces and all the corners of 
the universe and washes all shores, and binds the 
worlds into a spiritual unity ! " It is the universal 
medium of communication between worlds and parti- 
cles." How it immerses and fills the inmost pores of 
all bodies, so that all substance is " ether-soaked " ! 
How it hands over to us the radiant energies of the 
sun, speeding them on w T aves that girdle the globe 
seven times in a second, bringing them to our doors 
and pouring them through our windows in inex- 
haustible fashion, and infusing their warmth into all 
life ! What greater wonder does science set before us 
than the story of its activities, vibrational and vor- 
tical, so varied and marvelously swift and sensitive 
and strong that we feel we are in the presence of an 
awful mystery like the presence of God! It is the 
medium for the intermediary world of force, and 
finally it is the stuff out of which all things are 
woven. No wonder Sir Oliver Lodge exclaims: 
" We live in an extraordinary universe." 

But in all this, we need not think apprehensively 
of the ether as the all in all. It hardly needs re- 
peating at this date that evolution is not creation, 
there can be no evolution without an evolver and no 



74 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

involution without an involver. Back of all things 
and in all things is " the infinite and eternal Energy 
from which all things proceed," who is the infinite 
factor in every problem and the determining factor 
at every step of the way. 

FINAL CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE ENERGY AND 
VITALITY OF SPIRIT 

" But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." 

The psychic significance of the ether cannot fail 
to grow upon us, and we may well presume that we 
have only the beginnings of its significance here, and 
that the full scope will be revealed only in the more 
responsive world of spirit. Spirit is evidently more 
ethereal in its structure than matter, more closely 
related to the primal substance, and consequently ap- 
proximating more nearly its activities. We are told 
that " matter is ever ascending in the scale, and the 
higher it ascends the more powerful it becomes. 
The finer, the more subtle an element is, the more 
powerful it is." 

Now this increased energy and more abundant life 
in the spirit must mean several things. It must needs 
mean a higher order of world, the expressions and 
manifestations of spirit substance we must assume 
to be of a finer and more varied order than is possible 
with the thick encasement of matter here. Its radi- 
ant energies must surpass all that we know here of 
sunset and rainbow and vibrant effulgence. It must 
pulsate with a life and movement beside which our 
world down here must seem to be slow and dull. 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 75 

SPIRIT MORE EXPRESSIVE THAN MATTER 

Then spirit as being more ethereal, we would con- 
sider as more fluid and amenable to form than heavy, 
intractable matter. Indeed it is claimed that while 
the forms of earth are duplicated in spirit, there are 
infinitely more expressions in spirit than here. The 
formative principle would naturally have more free- 
dom and play and creative joy in expressing itself 
in spirit forms. 

We are told that thought can be so directed and 
concentrated as to mold and fashion spirit substance 
in wonderful ways that seem passing strange to us. 
I will venture to refer here to a paragraph on home- 
building in spirit from a very illuminating communi- 
cation through the psychic, Rev. Thomas Grimshaw. 
" Can you not imagine a higher method of construc- 
tion than those with which you are now familiar? 
These earthly buildings are but ideals materialized, 
and because of the crudeness of the materials they 
must forsooth be constructed with hands. Not so in 
the spirit world. The homes of that land are not 
made with hands, but by the power of thought and 
will acting upon spiritual substances. This state- 
ment may appeal to some of you as the acme of fool- 
ishness, but wait before you condemn." What lati- 
tude then, what perspective, what prodigality of play 
must be assigned the creative Wisdom in the furnish- 
ings of the home over there. 

And expression it would seem must be more vivid 
in a world so highly organized, the interpretative 
principle within the form must stand out more clearly. 
Such a world must be far more spiritual, mirroring 



76 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

as it must the deeper inwardness of nature and the 
higher purposes and riches of the infinite Wisdom, 
and so more deeply revealing the divine presence. 
And the spirit body would become a self-creation, 
such a materialization and representative garment 
for the soul, such a delicate instrument of expression, 
as is not possible in our heavy encasement here. 
Such will doubtless be its opportunity and necessity. 
This is what we are told : " Whatever a man or 
woman is in the spirit land, the representation ap- 
pears upon the external. They cannot seem to be 
what they are not. There is no such a thing as dis- 
guising one's soul characteristics after death." u As 
yet we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face." 

From an inspirational address accredited to Wil- 
liam T. Stead not long after the sinking of the Ti- 
tanic — and there have been several noteworthy 
manifestations of Mr. Stead since that event * — I 
quote the following as pertinent to our thought : " I 
felt the giant trembling and the rushing of waters, 
and the thought came, would it be for long? And 
after the first roar, a great surging, suffocating 
sense, I awoke as one awakening from a horrible 
dream. The great light of this morning came to me, 
the morning of this other life; it was like awakening 
from a nightmare to a dawn of peace, or from a 
prison into freedom. It seemed as a morning of 
splendor after the night of earth, as wings compared 
to groping, as bloom and fruition after the bud of 
silence and darkness. Who can properly describe 
the indescribable? I have learned more of answer 

* See the book, " My Father." 






SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 77 

to all the questions that I have asked in my life, than 
I have learned all my life before, because the answer 
is inherent in the state, in the life." 

This is a word wafted from the unseen as a seed 
for the soil prepared to receive it. Here is another : 
" The tale is not half told ; no language that we can 
command would enable us to fully interpret the reali- 
ties, the glory, and the grandeur of that world and 
life which awaits man beyond death." 

" Life has many a pleasant hour, 
Many a bright and cloudless day; 
Singing bird and smiling flower 
Scatter sunbeams on our way. 
But the fairest blossoms grow 
In the land to which we go." 

From Stead back to Plato is a long interval of 
time, but Plato in his philosophizing on immortality 
has some things to say about the reality and vivid- 
ness of the other life that may be fittingly given here. 
Plato compares this state of being to men sitting in 
a cave, bound by the feet and neck so they cannot 
move or look behind. Back of them where they can- 
not see it, is a great light. And between them and 
the great light is a raised causeway, and on this 
causeway real objects are passing along. Now the 
light back of the causeway naturally throws the 
shadows of these moving objects in front of the men 
in bonds, and as they never see anything but shadows 
they take these shadows for the realities. So Plato 
— termed by Professor Jowett the greatest meta- 
physician who has ever lived — taught in contradis- 
tinction to the thought and literature of his time, 



78 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

that while we are chained in our physical bodies we 
live in a world of shadows, we see only images, while 
in the spiritual world are the real things. Surely 
this was an ideal vision of the future life and its 
heightened expression for 400 B. C. 

" 'Tis life whereof our nerves are scant, 
More life and fuller that we want." 

AUGMENTED POWERS OF SEEING AND MOVING 

Two characteristic things, we are always doing 
here, are seeing and moving. We must see in order 
to bring the world within ; we must move for new 
contacts and adjustments. Have we not wondered 
sometimes about our powers of perception and the 
freedom and buoyancy of motion in that land where 
we come to our own? The wings ascribed to the an- 
gelic messengers in the Jewish apocalyptic we take 
as a poetical and beautiful symbol of the ethereal 
nature and movement of spirit. The Egyptians be- 
fore this put little images of a bird with human head 
into the tombs of their dead, as representing the in- 
telligence and ethereal powers of the soul. Some- 
times in our dreams we have found ourselves endowed 
with the power of gliding rapidly over the ground in 
such easy and delightful fashion that we regretted 
the waking up. Some interpret this as a hint of the 
long past, an aerial memory ; may it not rather be a 
hint of the future in a partial release of the spirit 
in sleep? " I felt myself moving, and yet could not 
tell how it was done. It is an action of the mind, 
indescribable by me as yet." Says a noted psychic 
scholar : " The ethereal organism being of great 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 79 

tenuity, the action of the will on the universal ether 
produces displacement. It is easily conceivable that 
the resistance of the ethereal medium being almost nil, 
the exercise of a very slight degree of force is suffi- 
cient to overcome it and to produce the translation 
of the perisprit in whatever direction the will of the 
ego directs." We also move by an action of the 
mind here and now, mind acting upon the motor 
nerves and thus impelling forward the heavy body. 
But what shall mind do on the journey when master 
and captain of the far more responsive craft, the 
spirit organism? Indeed marvelous experiences are 
told of spirit travels and speedy transferences 
through the ethereal spaces, which to one uninitiated 
to all problems of the spirit would only seem a mere 
phantasy. But we cannot doubt that all conveyances 
in the history of transportation here are slow beside 
the swift flight of spirit. 

" They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they 
shall run and not be weary." " From walking we 
seemed to glide into the air without effort. The 
world simply sank away from us as when you are in 
a balloon. We went through space at a great speed. 
I did not feel the speed so much while in motion as 
when we stayed and discovered how fast and how far 
we had come." [" Julia."] 

In this conclusion there is a word more for us on 
the possibilities of the eye in spirit. The eye is the 
most spiritual of our sensory powers, and must best 
express the intensified life of the spirit. We would 
expect great things of the eye. Consider its digni- 
fied position in the upper forefront of the head; it is 
the watchman on the tower overlooking and noting 



80 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

all things. Consider its magnetic and compelling 
power, its interpretative power in giving expression 
to the moods of the soul, it is the mirror of the world 
without and the mirror of the world within, and its 
curious structure brings it into harmony with a sec- 
tion at least of its vibratory environment. But we 
have every reason to believe that this high office of 
the eye must needs be greatly magnified in spirit life, 
and its vibratory harmony and responsiveness be 
greatly increased. The eye, as we have it, is the 
product of this life; it is a fleshly mechanism and a 
conformity to its physical besetment. But the spir- 
itual eye must be a conformity to much higher and 
more exacting conditions, and in the nature of things 
it must be a finer organism with finer adjustments 
and far greater powers. The organ of sight in the 
water grub is formed for its habitat in the pool, the 
eye of the dragon fly is much larger and more com- 
plicated, its visual powers are fitted for a higher 
world. 

The testimony from the other side is very clear and 
emphatic as to the increased visual powers of that life. 
It is affirmed that everything seems more vivid, more 
real, the spiritual expression is not so covered up and 
eclipsed as in the heavy encasements of earth. It is 
even asserted in the matter of long-distance vision, 
that there is no sphere so far removed where by lov- 
ing concentration the spirit seer cannot discern 
friends on earth. Flammarion has predicted the 
spirit eye as so responsive to the subtlest vibrations 
of the ether that it is able to penetrate the atomic 
structure of matter, in which case, he says, the ob- 
ject itself could not be seen, the vision would pass 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 81 

through it. This would seem to be true, for the ethe- 
real interspaces of matter are so large compared with 
the molecular nuclei that vision sufficiently acute 
could see through, somehow as we look up into the 
open sky on a clear night. I take the liberty to 
quote here a few words of witness to Prof. Hiram 
Corson of Cornell from his daughter in spirit : " We 
have a power not possessed by mortals of seeing long 
distances and through opaque substances. Conse- 
quently, wherever we are, we are able to see you and 
know what you are about." What an enlargement 
of our world extensively and intensively this must 
mean. " And the Lord opened the eyes of the young 
man, and he saw." 

It is evident that while mortals see the material 
side of the universe, spirits see the spiritual side. 
Spirit takes cognizance and perceives clearly the more 
real, substantial, the more glorious, and universal 
part, which is hidden from us. And all else is small 
indeed beside the spiritual realm. We are told also 
that spirit perceives clearly the spirit mortal, the 
spirit body, and the spiritual essence in all organic 
and animal life, and by coming into the electro-mag- 
netic aura of the earthly friend finds needed support, 
and is enabled to perceive the external of all forms. 



It would not seem unreasonable that the higher 
vitality and vibration of spirit might be associated 
with subtle powers we know not now or only in germ. 
Helen Keller reads and sees and hears with her fin- 
gers. The auditory and optic nerves are the main 
chords we have in our harp of life here, but the in- 



82 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

numerable vibrations that make the universe alive 
may in spirit evoke other responsive chords to play 
upon. Is this speculative? Well, it must be said 
that speculation or imagination restrained and guided 
by reason has been a great pioneer to better things. 
It impelled Columbus to find a new world, it may help 
us on the same quest. 

" AND THEY SUNG AS IT WERE A NEW SONG " 

But there is something else that belongs to the 
sphere of vibratory energy par excellence, that we 
could not well leave here without a word. What shall 
we think of music in a world of ethereal vibrations? 
If music has had such a wonderful development on 
earth, if strings and reeds and columns of air have 
been skillfully manipulated to produce such harmo- 
nies here, and to so interpret feelings and sentiments 
too deep for words, what may we look for in a world 
of vastly finer vibrations? Music has always and 
inevitably been associated with heaven. It is an im- 
portant element in worship here, and must needs hold 
a higher position over there ; it is the highest expres- 
sion and interpreter of the soul here, and must in 
natural order reach its finest art and expressiveness 
and most glorious inspirations and delights in the re- 
fined atmosphere of the spirit. 

I submit here a few brief declarations from the 
spirit side, for to the spirit side we must naturally 
look in this matter. And by way of preface we 
might remind ourselves that not everything psychic 
is baseness and fraud, that human nature may some- 
times be worthy of confidence even this side of heaven, 
and that science as well as tradition has something 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 83 

to offer about the future life. We are making prog- 
ress when we have patiently and studiously learned 
this. 

" The harmonious sounds were to me wonderful, 
no sound like those on earth, but melodious, perme- 
ating the soul, thrilling every nerve, not to a tight 
tension but smoothly flowing like the rippling waters 
of a brook, the voices, for they are voices, not dis- 
cordant but falling on the ear softly as chiming bells 
in the distance." (" Interwoven.") 

" They were playing upon instruments, actual in- 
struments, all in harmony, and I never heard any- 
thing like it in the earthly world. The music was 
divine." (Gen. A. P. Martin in " Both Sides of the 
Veil.") 

" I have been where violins were played so divinely 
that it seemed like a strain from heavenly heights. 
One musician's soul seemed to be singing through the 
strings." 

LOW IDEAS OF THE FUTURE STATE HELD BY 
THE ANCIENT WORLD 

We earnestly and devoutly hold then that life is 
an ascent and not a descent, that the spirit order is 
a great advance upon the feebleness and slowness of 
earth, a great advance in its vitalities and energies 
and glory upon the present order. We are getting 
acquainted with the ether, and its marvelous sug- 
gestiveness and promise. The enormous strength of 
the ether in gravitational transmission is past our 
comprehension. It does not take the place of right- 
eousness and the spiritual life, but it does point the 
way to a spiritual foundation and to spiritual ener- 



84 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

gies and correspondencies doubtless far surpassing 
all that we have known in our beginnings here. In 
Greek and Roman thought, the future life was a pale, 
anaemic sort of existence, with the flash gone from the 
eye, the iron from the blood, and the strength from 
the arm, and what was left was fitly called a shade. 
To that ancient world of the athlete and the war- 
rior, the flesh-and-blood life was the only real and 
worth-while life ; and there seems to be a good linger- 
ing survival of that old idea yet in the unconscious 
thought of our time. It is voiced in the popular 
play of " Joseph and His Brethren " in the song of 
the jailer to the prisoner: "It is better to be alive 
than dead ; it is better to be alive than dead." Spirit 
is still unreal and seems like a shade to the minds of 
many. The Homeric poems preserve this old time 
view, as in the answer of Achilles the Greek hero when 
Ulysses met and conversed with him in his journey 
underworld : 

" I would be 
A laborer on earth, and serve for hire 
Some man of mean estate who makes scant cheer, 
Rather than reign o'er all who have gone down 
To death/' 

Such a view of survival was perhaps natural to those 
faraway, unscientific, and unspiritual ages. The 
materials for a worthy view of the future life were 
very largely lacking, they had no spirit body of the 
subtlest forces known but only the trailing shadow 
of the substance; and they could find no worthy 
home in their universe for the soul, and so they 
groveled and burrowed in a dim underworld. The 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 85 

whole conception failed pathetically in its interpre- 
tation of life and death. Of course Christianity has 
done a great work in spiritualizing our ideals of the 
future, but patient scientific investigation also must 
be allowed its full share of credit in affording us 
some fundamental and believable conceptions of spirit 
body and spirit world and their nature and powers. 
There can be no doubt that this world of spirit sub- 
stance into which our physical passes (the outer and 
spiritual envelope overarching and infolding our 
earth home), that this world thrills and throbs with 
life, a life more intense than anything we now know 
or our senses can take cognizance of. 



CHAPTER VI 

OTHER TESTIMONIES TO THE NATURAL 
ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" For in him we live and move and have our being." 

The question of the order of spirit is of very great 
importance in our religious thinking and our prac- 
tical outlook upon life, and so it deserves more special 
treatment. We have been contending for the ad- 
justability of the creative resources, and for the two 
bases of existence, the material and the spiritual, for 
the real existence of spirit, not in dogma but in 
reality, and for the wonderful functions and basic 
nature of the ether. And now directly and definitely 
we need to put the query — Shall we affirm the nat- 
ural order of spirit, of spirit body and spirit world, 
shall we assign them to the familiar domain of law 
and development, or shall we leave them in the old 
category of the supernatural? 

And if we give an answer first and attach a few 
reasons last, we must evidently and emphatically af- 
firm the natural order and relations of spirit. It is 
clearly not in harmony with the great modern con- 
ception of unity, that spirit should be taken up into 
some transcendent region, where it is exempt from the 
established procedure of law and order and put into 
some irresponsible, supernatural department by itself. 

We have no reason to disbelieve and every reason to 

86 



OTHER TESTIMONIES 87 

believe, that spirit lives and moves and has its being 
in law as well as matter, and that the ways and be- 
havior of spirit are a subject of scientific deduction 
like the ways of matter. There could be no worthy 
psychic research without this confidence. It has 
been said that a common superstition is that when we 
leave the body, we are at once beyond the laws of na- 
ture. But we hold that nature is everywhere, and 
that unity is everywhere for we live in a universe. 

TRANSCENDENCE AND IMMANENCE OF CERTAIN 
GREAT RELIGIOUS IDEAS 

This question of spirit has its theological implica- 
tions and relationships, and for this reason it will 
help us to look back a bit. It is most interesting in 
the study of religious thought, to note the long and 
hard struggle between the transcendence and imma- 
nence of certain great fundamental religious ideas. 
Religious conceptions which are now very present in 
our midst, which we look upon as part and parcel of 
ourselves so thoroughly have they been assimilated 
in thought and life — these conceptions were for long 
periods held very remotely by the human mind and 
had such an alien, faraway look as to be devoid of 
all kinship. God and heaven, the spiritual world and 
body, law and government, were thrust far away into 
the unknown outside, and were all conceived of in 
terms of externalism and supernaturalism. The 
causes for such externalization were of course various 
and incident to the past. The universe was narrow 
in its bounds, spirit was intrinsically antagonistic to 
matter, and at any rate a curse had been pronounced 
upon the earth with the fall of man, and above all 



88 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

God ruled like an oriental sovereign over his subjects 
and over nature, and had not yet come down in kin- 
ship and fatherhood to tabernacle among his chil- 
dren and work his wonders in the midst of things. 

THE DRAWING NEAR OF GOD, HEAVEN, AND 
SPIRIT BODY 

But all this has changed and is changing. Evo- 
lution has necessitated a great revival of immanence, 
of a present Deity working in the midst of things, 
and literary criticism has broken up rigid and stereo- 
typed modes of Jewish thought, the sweeping out- 
look and the amazing inlook demand that God be at 
hand, here and everywhere. And we must not forget 
also that the spirit world " impinges on this world of 
ours," and is always seeking to impress its nearness 
upon us. Man is coming to his own, though his way 
has been blocked by the overmuch inherited accumu- 
lations of ecclesiasticism and dogma. He is coming 
to a new sense of the unity and vitality of the uni- 
verse and to a new sense of kinship with God. Even 
now he is standing on holy ground, the old artificial 
distinctions between sacred and profane are passing, 
the sacred is spreading its mantle over all nature and 
life and lawful activities ; and all this is because God 
is drawing near in human thought as he drew near 
to Moses in the bush. We no longer banish God 
from the world. Externalism with its inevitable 
evolution of allied thinking, with its alien aspect of 
spirit and law and its constant interferences, must 
more and more be superseded by the vital conceptions 
of our day, by the working out of the divine will from 



OTHER TESTIMONIES 89 

within nature and humanity, and by the natural 
order of life here and hereafter. Writers on the psy- 
chology of religion, like Prof. Coe, claim the natural 
order as large enough to include all the divine opera- 
tions. If God as the infinite Will and eternal En- 
ergy " worketh all in all," immanent in nature and 
man and no longer outside as the Hebrews and Mil- 
ton placed him, then all phenomena, strictly speaking, 
are natural, and there is no room for the magical and 
superstitious. And if the supernatural has become 
natural with God in the midst of things, the natural 
has also become supernatural so that the flower by 
the wayside is edged with eternal mystery and incom- 
prehensible to all our search. And this is not loss, 
but great gain. It is the profoundly spiritual view 
of things, it means not less but infinitely more of 
God. It makes the earth the outer court of the tem- 
ple, and allies heaven with earth, and prepares the 
way for a spiritual habitation not afar off but near at 
hand. " Surely the Lord was in this place and I 
knew it not." 

For if God has come nearer to men, it is also true 
that heaven has come nearer and assumed a more 
home-like aspect, the old apocalyptic transcendence 
is disappearing more and more. Many are thinking- 
that while " Heaven lies about us in our infancy," we 
may stretch a point and hold that it lies about us the 
whole of life. And the spirit body also is assuming 
a more familiar and friendly appearance and taking 
on a look of personal kinship and belonging, and the 
old separation or " tremendous jump " so called be- 
tween matter and spirit seems on the way to be closed. 






90 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

THE UNIFYING PROCESS IN HUMAN THOUGHT 

Things are losing the old sense of disjunction and 
farawayness, and it is felt as never before that the 
kingdom of God is at hand. A great unifying proc- 
ess has been going on in human thought everywhere 
with the concept of evolution, in the effort to discover 
the relationships and homogeneities of the universe, 
and to simplify and coordinate all knowledge into a 
beautiful whole. Biology has bridged the gulf be- 
tween species, and linked together a chain of life from 
the amoeba to man. Physics has correlated the dif- 
ferent forces in the vibratory ether. And matter so 
intractable has been reduced to a form of electric 
energy, and the elements are considered to be differ- 
ent groupings of this one fundamental constituent, 
the electron. Law is no longer transcendent and 
handed down from above as Hammurabi received his 
famous code from the sun-god, Shamash, or Moses in 
sacred story the commandments from Jehovah. But 
the law has been written upon the tables of the heart 
and hammered out in human experience and struggle, 
and has become a part of us as the lesson of life. 
Law, like the spirit body, is not without but within. 
The universe is a unity in all its parts, coherent, 
self-consistent, everywhere interrelated and vitally 
bound together. And the drawing near of spirit may 
be regarded as a part of this universal, unifying 
process, as a part of the compelling, evolutionary 
demand for order and affiliation in the world. 

HISTORIC APPROACH TO THE SPIRIT WORLD 

This is better appreciated if we look back a mo- 
ment here on the historic approach to the spirit 



OTHER TESTIMONIES 91 

world. The word " heaven " is deeply rooted and ap- 
peals to the high and holy in our nature. But the 
conceptions and imagery that have been associated 
in the mind with our spiritual abode, have been 
largely and highly transcendent to our poor human 
nature. Like some other religious generalizations 
heaven has had its crude beginnings, and its long 
spiritualization, with glimpses here and there of a kin- 
ship and glory close at hand. God has not directly 
localized and unveiled the spirit home. But far bet- 
ter, he has put within man the spirit of inquiry and 
adventure, and we are slowly throwing off the super- 
stitious notion that it is wrong to search. The 
vague idea lingering in the mind that a given doctrine 
comes to us full-fledged and absolutely perfected, we 
have learned to set down as without foundation in 
human experience. Everything grows in this world. 

THE HEBREW FIRMAMENT 

The Hebrew prophets held that God's throne was 
upon the crystalline firmament, where he was sur- 
rounded by his angelic court, and where he dwelt in 
majesty and light unapproachable. " And above the 
firmament, that was over their heads, was the likeness 
of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone, 
and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness 
as the appearance of a man above upon it." And 
round about the throne, the glory of the Lord ap- 
peared as the rainbow in the cloud on the day of rain. 
This was an exalted description, and its great defect 
was not so much its limitations, as that it was pat- 
terned wholly after the kingly idea with all its neces- 
sary implications. And it is almost needless to say 



92 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

that a great deal of theology has been patterned 
after the same idea, for this Hebrew transcendence 
deeply tinged Christian thought. People did not go 
to heaven in those old times, with the exception of 
Enoch and Elijah, any more than they daringly in- 
truded into the palace and presence of the king. 
They went down into Sheol, the Hebrew underworld. 
There was then this great gulf of a heaven inaccessi- 
ble and vitally unrelated to earth, with Jehovah look- 
ing down upon men as subjects, and communicating 
his sovereign decrees by angelic messengers. It was 
a long way from a human and democratic abode, from 
a home with its trustful spirit and its free and loving 
relations and vital interests. 

THE HEAVENS OF DANTE AND MILTON 

In later times, with the dissolution of the crystal- 
line expanse above and with the extension of the uni- 
verse, the old quarters did not suffice in men's 
thoughts, and heaven was pushed farther away from 
earth and finally into unknown realms of space, where 
we might add it has remained ever since more or less. 
It remains to be said that poetry has done much in 
perpetuating the Hebrew transcendence, in extending 
and intensifying it. Perhaps the strongest appeal 
and most lasting impressions of a transcendent 
heaven or heavens, utterly disjointed from earth, 
have been made by the dramatic imagery of the two 
Christian poets, Dante and Milton. We may recall 
in brief that Dante divided heaven into nine spheres, 
which he located in the heavenly bodies ; in the Moon, 
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, 
and curiously the stars Castor and Pollux, and the 



OTHER TESTIMONIES 93 

center of the universe. The poet evidently felt the 
need of a solid material support for any heaven that 
could at all be reconciled to medieval ideas. But he 
did not realize there were other planets beyond Sat- 
urn, which would have saved him an excursion be- 
yond the limits of our system, or that the high 
temperature of the sun, 12,000° F. might make it 
inconvenient as a residence for resurrected bodies. 
But Dante made use of the astronomy of his time and 
the materialistic eschatology of his time, as the He- 
brew writers made use of the crude astronomy of 
their time. The result was a heaven remote, alien, 
and supernatural. 

Milton revived and immensely extended the Hebrew 
idea. He seemed to consider that all that is, was 
embraced in a sphere of infinite radius. Half of this 
sphere, the upper part where God dwells and reigns 
over all, is set apart as heaven, while a solid crystal 
floor separates this heavenly region from the starry 
universe below, and the abyss of the fallen angels 
below that. Milton's conception was the work of a 
bold and constructive imagination, but its utter in- 
adequacy is apparent now as it was not in his day. 
A Miltonic universe from which God is left out w T ould 
be entirely unthinkable for our time. The sidereal 
universe as at present known is assigned a diameter 
by Prof. Young of 20,000 or 30,000 light years, 
and if the infinite Presence and eternal Energy is not 
here in the midst of his works, we know not where 
he can be found. What law of physics upheld the 
crystalline firmament of the poet does not appear, 
but one thing is certain, its dissolution under mod- 
ern thought has been much more rapid than that 



94 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

of its Hebrew prototype. A curious defect in this 
celestial scheme of a transcendent heaven is seen 
where the rebel angels required only nine days in 
falling from the zenith to the nadir of the universe. 
But the route is longer now, inasmuch as there are 
stars affecting the photographic plate distant " thou- 
sands or even tens of thousands of light years," each 
second of the light year covering of course 186,000 
miles. Such a transcendence as this ought to be 
sufficiently appalling to satisfy any one, whose the- 
ology demands that heaven should be banished into 
the infinite unknown. A survival of the Miltonic 
scheme is seen in the hymn, " Beyond the Stars," in 
which hypothetical region the writer locates the 
home of the saints. But suppose we banish heaven 
10,000 light years into space or into the quintil- 
lions of miles, the mind must still assume 10,000 
light years further, which space we cannot conceive 
as empty. It would surely seem time to call a halt 
in this process of banishing heaven, our heaven, into 
unthinkable and absurd regions. Heaven has wan- 
dered from underworld to firmament, from moon to 
planet and thence to the stars, till at length it has 
been thrust over the edge of the universe into the 
land of nowhere. Now while we may give these vari- 
ous conceptions proper credit for service in their 
generation, it would seem to be high time for us to 
suspect at least that somehow we may have over- 
looked our heaven in its very nearness and vital sim- 
plicity. Truly all these schemes of supernatural 
transcendence and of heavens utterly disjointed from 
earth, have their little day and are then rolled up 
like a scroll and laid aside. 



OTHER TESTIMONIES 



95 



A SURROUNDING SPIRIT WORLD 

" Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of 
witnesses." 

Now from all this transcendence digression, we 
turn in relief to the nearer, and more human and 
sympathetic, and infinitely more home-like and com- 
pelling representation of the spirit world which is 
taking shape more and more in the modern mind. 
" The kingdom of heaven is at hand," was the preach- 
ing of Jesus and of John the forerunner, and it 
has always been at hand, and God has always been 
at hand, and the spirit world and body have always 
been at hand though veiled. And we must consider 
that psychic research and the higher spiritualism, 
and recent studies of the ether and the nature of mat- 
ter, have furnished a vast deal of evidence and sug- 
gestion in modifying the coldly remote and new Jeru- 
salem types of picture we have had of the other 
world. They have given at least some sense of 
proximity, and continuity, of humanness and home, 
and objective reality. The great number of ac- 
credited communications from the other side — ac- 
credited to those who have done them the honor to 
become properly and sympathetically acquainted 
with their modus operandi and content — have pro- 
duced powerful impressions of the vital nearness of 
the spirit world. These messages, with their per- 
sonal atmosphere impossible to interpret to others, 
with their dramatic human interplay that can be fully 
appreciated only in experience, with their marvelous 
insight into the hidden things of life and with testing 
circumstances of every variety, have had the logical 
consequences of bringing many face to face with a 



96 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

surrounding spirit world. For a multitude of per- 
plexed souls, it has been an unspeakable relief to re- 
discover our lost heaven as u not very far from every 
one of us." Of course, there are stubborn objectors 
here as elsewhere, who note a few things on the sur- 
face and to whom the whole subject of spirit, it may 
be, is trivial or repellent. These are tempted to see 
nothing but a closed door and to present nothing 
but a closed mind. For such, we fear, the remote- 
ness and unreality of the future life must remain. 

Psychic investigation has given a mass of testi- 
mony from the other side about the nature and lo- 
calization of the spirit realms, as far as they can be 
made clear to our apprehension in language and 
symbol. And such testimony, while ofttimes far be- 
yond our knowledge, is not unrelated and contradic- 
tory to knowledge, but often co-ordinates itself in a 
striking way with later developments of knowledge. 
Truth often fits together like a pictured mosaic. 
The recent disclosures of radio-activity and the ether 
are most suggestive in the support they bring to 
spirit teachings of many years ago. It is well to 
remember that a statement that by itself may seem 
fantastic and wild, may be found reasonable and 
harmonious when its relations are clearly perceived. 
Now spirit testimony is emphatic, uniform, and con- 
stantly repeated that our earth is surrounded and 
ensphered by the spirit world. The great contention 
of genuine spiritualism has always been this — that 
our earth has its spiritual counterpart, and is sur- 
rounded and accompanied by spiritual spheres in its 
onward sweep through space, and that under proper 
circumstances and adjustments it is possible to have 



OTHER TESTIMONIES 97 

communication with this world. Alfred Russell 
Wallace, the distinguished scientist, in his article on 
Spiritualism in Chambers' Encyclopedia, lays down 
the thesis that the cardinal truths of spiritualism, 
established on the experiments and experiences of 
millions, are those of a surrounding world of spirits, 
the continuity of existence through the momentary 
eclipse of death as it disappears on earth reappear- 
ing in the spirit world, and the intercommunion and 
intercommunication of the living and the so-called 
dead. Now this is sufficiently explicit and unmistak- 
able in its meaning. And psychic research work 
has furnished to most leaders of this movement and 
a multitude outside, suggestions and confirmations 
in great abundance of the presence of a spirit world 
about us. The numerous works of Prof. Hyslop, 
Sir Oliver Lodge, F. W. H. Myers, Prof. Barrett, 
Dr. Wallace, Sir William Crookes, Flammarion, Lom- 
broso, Maxwell, Richet, Carrington and others, with 
their long and detailed accounts of all phases of 
psychic phenomena, together with the vast collections 
of psychic material filed away in the Proceedings and 
Journals of the S. P. R., these have helped and 
guided many souls into a communion with a present 
spirit world. Rut there is a significant word to note 
here from Principal Lodge: " This is not a subject 
on which one comes lightly and easily to a conclusion, 
nor can the evidence be explained except to those 
who w r ill give it time and careful study." If God 
has put us on the search here as elsewhere, as he un- 
doubtedly has, it must be so. 

And so the world of spirit is drawing near to us. 
Slowly like all great movements in human thought, 



98 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

out of the unknown spaces into which it had been 
banished, out of its apocalyptic and beatific visions, 
it is coming into view here and there a more human 
heaven for more human needs, and infinitely tran- 
scending the old transcendence in its wonderful ad- 
justments. 

" The heart's long prayer is answered thus, 
The dead through no far countries roam; 

As babes born into waiting arms, 
They die into some higher home. ,, 

THE LAW OF THE COUNTERPART 

"And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming 
down from God out of heaven." 

To pass on — the spirit world is more or less, we 
are told from the other side, a counterpart of our 
earth home, or more correctly speaking the earth is 
a crude prototype of the spirit world. We are real- 
izing more than ever that nature is a vast symbolism, 
with prophecies and crude representations of things 
not clearly seen as yet. And the invisible meaning 
wrapped up in the symbol is the reality in the case, 
the spiritual counterpart is the fulfilling of the pro- 
totype. Men have always believed in symbolism, 
and the Bible and poetry derive much of their rich- 
ness and picturesqueness from the symbol, from this 
silent lifting up of the voice and pointing forward 
of the symbol to higher things. 

And so the physical world is a symbol of the higher 
spiritual world, the world that is seen of the world 
that is unseen, and so we believe the two worlds are 
allied and more interrelated and interwoven in simili- 
tude than we had thought. Here we have the form 



OTHER TESTIMONIES 99 

and image in its coarse and rough stage, over there 
the symbol is reproduced in substance more refined 
and radiant. And this is only a faint transcript of 
spirit teaching as to the vital alliance of the physical 
and spiritual. Such a thought may seem strange 
and unwelcome at first, but looking closely, are we 
not dealing with something of the nature of a far- 
reaching law? Laying aside all predilections and 
theological bias, is it not reasonable and beautiful, 
and thoroughly evolutionary in its principles, that 
such a unitary connection of worlds and such a re- 
fined translation of outward forms should hold true? 
It will certainly be nothing new, but in accord with 
nature's processes and unfoldings extending through 
the ages, that the type should be reproduced in higher 
form. It would certainly be like the wise and pru- 
dent ways of that infinite Life that guides and in- 
forms nature, if our highest physical expressions 
most worthy of spiritual continuity, should be trans- 
planted and in due time we should joyfully discover 
their correspondences on the spirit side. What a 
home-likeness and tender familiarity it must give as 
we step out of the old home into the new. 

" And best of all, it looks like home, 
No strange land trod by alien feet; 

Familiar as our childhood haunts, 
Clothed all in mellow sunlight sweet/' 

How appealing to our sense of orderly fitness, that 
there should be nothing utterly disjointed in a well- 
ordered universe. In prescientific times, and in the 
sphere of Jewish eschatology, the course of nature 
and events may be as disjointed as we please, all 



100 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

things may come and go by cataclysms. But in this 
old world of thought we no longer live. We cannot 
but hold that life here and life hereafter are differ- 
ing aspects of the same natural order, that this phys- 
ical body is the coarse prototype of the finer and 
luminous body of spirit, and that this material order 
is also the symbol and prototype of an ensphering, 
outreaching and evolved spiritual order which is mag- 
netically and vitally connected. That is the law of 
the counterpart. 

" All that meets the bodily sense I deem 
Symbolical — one mighty alphabet 
For infant minds." 



CHAPTER VII 
OBJECTIVITY OF THE SPIRIT WORLD 

" And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished 
with all manner of precious stones." 

" On being interrogated concerning his impressions of life on 
the other side, Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace could only explain 
repeatedly that it was beyond all comprehension, so astounding 
was the reality of it all." — " Light," London. 

Concerning the objectivity of the world of spirit, 
we shall evidently know and see more clearly when we 
rise to that world. But we have no difficulty in 
postulating an objective life beyond, for a world of 
chaos and nothingness would be utterly unthinkable 
for any form of spirit embodiment. Life in this 
world consists largely in reactions upon the manifold 
objects about us, life is constant action and reaction, 
and a world without such reactions would be no world 
at all. The creative Life is continually expressing 
itself in objective forms and ways, and man in the 
image of that life must needs express himself ob- 
jectively. It would seem that a greater calamity 
could hardly befall us than to be suddenly and ut- 
terly disrupted from all objective manifestation, or 
even from all kinship and reminder of our long asso- 
ciation with the outward world here. The author of 
" The New Knowledge " has estimated that while 
there are some seventy elements, these may combine to 

form some 250,000 different molecules or material 

101 



102 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

units. This surely gives a basis for an astonishing 
variety of form life here, but spirit substance would 
seem to be much more fluid and amenable to expres- 
sion. 

We say then, that if we react at all, as we surely 
must in any embodied expression, we must have some- 
thing to react upon. 

From a review in the Boston Transcript (Dec. 
16, 1905) of the book " Interwoven," I quote as fol- 
lows : " In these letters every detail of the ways 
and manner of life in the next stage of existence is 
discussed in the same way that one would write of 
things of this world while a part of it. From these 
descriptions, things seem to be very much the same 
on the other side as here. Spirits are not we are 
told mere air or ether, but tangible substance, refined 
matter, subject to spiritual conditions, as they were 
before to earthy conditions." People live in houses 
with gardens, plants and flowers ; there are schools, 
institutions, amusements, galleries of pictures, and 
places of song. 

From the spirit side they speak like this: You 
think your flowers are beautiful, and so they are, 
but hardly any comparison can be made between them 
and those of spirit. " Why the music, the flowers, 
the trees, the birds, the lakes, the rivers, the hills, 
the gardens, the walks, are perfectly magnificent, and 
nothing in the earthly world hardly can ever corre- 
spond to them," was an experience of transition given 
through Mrs. Piper. 

The following letter from a little girl in spirit to 
her mother is from an unpublished manuscript auto- 
matically written which I insert here for its simple 



OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 103 

ingenuousness : " O loving Mother — I wish you 
could have seen our pretty houses, all trimmed with 
grasses and tall sweet brier roses. The grasses 
bended over my roof and drooped on Ella's and her 
roses climbed even to my roof, and hundreds of bright 
birds alighted and chirped and sung to us. I also 
trimmed dear Father's house and Brother's studio, and 
then Grandpa, whose name was John, came to every 
house and stayed a little while. I found every blue 
bloom I could for Father's house and then Ella 
brought white roses, so his colors were blue and white 
for the new year. But Wadsworth was in golden 
blooms, and he laughed to see a real old-fashioned 
marigold. Oh, I wish you could have been with us ! 

" Etta." 

One spirit communicator makes an assumed ob- 
jector to inquire, if he meant to assert that the spirit 
world is a world of land and water, rock and soil, 
mountains and valleys, sea and air and sky, trees, 
flowers, and the multitude of forms which go to make 
up the earth world? The reply was : " That is just 
what we do mean to say " ; and the caution was given 
not to be too hasty in jumping to the conclusion 
that such a statement was preposterous. " In the 
midst of the street of it, and on either side of the 
river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve 
manner of fruits." 

Now what shall we say to all this? Of course we 
shall be wide of the mark if we picture this objective 
world as of the coarse material order and with the 
gravitational attachments we are familiar with here. 
In the foregoing, we are dealing strictly with spirit 
substance, differing widely in properties from our 



104 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

gross matter and yet allied to it, and with as positive 
reactions as we experience here. The spirit world in 
its reaction or resistance to sense will of course find 
its correspondences in bodies like unto it. It can 
be simply a matter of relativity. 

Such concrete presentations may come to one with 
something of a shock, they may seem such a human 
and ordinary treatment of the future state. But 
what kind of a heaven have we been led to expect, and 
have we seriously thought out the problem? Do we 
think of finding any naturalness and homelikeness in 
our surroundings over there, or any humanism in our 
friends? Or do we cherish a vague, transcendental 
notion that death upsets all continuity, and that our 
new surroundings will be utterly supernal, and that 
people over there are no longer folks as they were 
on earth? Dr. I. K. Funk in " The Widow's Mite," 
writes — u We are apt to think of a dead man as 
either henceforth a devil or an angel. But are we 
quite sure that we are right in believing that at death 
we are changed instantly into angels ? " And are 
we quite sure of a heaven utterly alien to earth and 
its familiar scenes, with an objective aspect, if any, 
supernatural and monotonous? It was some such 
kind of heaven, a heaven of fleecy clouds and halos 
and beatific visions that Mark Twain once carica- 
tured in case of a certain sea captain who after sail- 
ing across infinite space found it very boresome to 
sit on a cloud and thrum harp strings. It would 
seem that we need the freshening and humanizing 
spirit of naturalness breathed into all our concep- 
tions and imagery of the future for the sake of our 
rational and religious peace of mind. 



OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 105 

We add that our objective surroundings here have 
been our necessary basis of expression; they have 
helped us in making character and in rendering serv- 
ice. And a highly refined objective world with a 
larger amplitude of correspondence will not do less 
but more in drawing us out on the educational lines 
begun here, and in affording points of contact and 
helpfulness with one another. We have had a won- 
derful objective life here; we cannot imagine it to be 
suddenly annihilated, and the soul to be isolated from 
all externals and withdrawn into itself. It may well 
be that life will become more subjective as it ascends 
to higher planes over there, but that an objective 
nature rich and abundant, refined and luminous, fur- 
nishes and beautifies and makes glorious the spiritual 
spheres, there is great body of testimony the reason- 
ableness of which we cannot doubt. 

SHALL WE INSIST ON DEMONSTRATION IN ALL 

THIS? 

There are minds that seem to wait for demonstra- 
tion of mathematical precision for this or any psy- 
chic truth. But we do not so wait and insist on the 
absolute with other great truths or in ordinary life. 
A great working law in practical life is the law of 
probabilities or presumptive evidence ; this is the rule 
we w T alk by. Of how few things in life has the in- 
finite Wisdom seen proper to give us proofs of scien- 
tific and mathematical preciseness? The saying is 
attributed to Tennyson that " Nothing worth believ- 
ing can be proven." Our highest convictions can- 
not be proven with geometric precision or by sense 
perception, yet the soul that has grown up to the 



106 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

truth of them is not troubled with doubts. Do we 
have absolutely demonstrative evidence of the ether/ 
does it react upon the senses, and thrust itself upon 
the scientist at every turn as he seeks to exact a con- 
fession? Certainly not. We cannot weigh, or taste, 
or smell, or hear, or see the ether directly ; it is a most 
elusive and self-effacing substance, and yet it is in 
great demand. Both the world of spirit and the 
world of ether present themselves to us in a most rea- 
sonable way and bring recommendations of the high- 
est order. They both are an inevitable deduction 
from our present knowledge, and spirit especially 
forms a harmonious and beautiful mosaic of truth 
with things as we know them here and now. They 
do not come with credentials to satisfy our blind 
opposition, or our lack of interest and stupidity. 
But if we reach out toward them in a reasonable 
mood, if we are anxious to know about this resource- 
ful universe in which we live, the ether and the spirit 
world will meet us on our search and introduce them- 
selves convincingly. 

Jesus said unto Thomas — " Because thou hast 
seen me thou hast believed." But we realize better 
now how many things and how much of the universe 
lie about us that we do not see. As the heavens open 
up to us at night and the stars come out, bringing 
us the mystery and solemn beauty of endless space 
and new worlds, so if our spiritual vision were active, 
we should behold another world of more excellent 
glory and not far distant, lying about us and over 
our loved ones. 

A glorious sunset we claim rightfully as a gateway 
into the invisible. As suddenly the long slanting 



OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 107 

light rays are broken up into their prismatic colors 
and the clouds are transfigured, how plainly it flashes 
a message to our souls as we look on in wonder. 
Up in the dull sky, with the light beginning to fade 
below, has suddenly come this glorious vision. It is 
a vision from the unseen showing us how one world 
may suddenly open up into another world, already 
present but hitherto unrevealed, and how eye hath not 
seen nor ear fully heard what lies beyond the veil. 

Why are not the claims of the spirit world fully 
recognized and received in the folds of orthodoxy and 
science? We may state first, that more and more 
the spirit world is forcing recognition here, as many 
eminent advocates of spirit philosophy in the church 
and scientific world clearly show. But it will be fair 
to make reply by asking — Was orthodoxy ever 
known to welcome new truths? Or has science even 
been forward in hospitality in according welcome to 
new disclosures especially of a mystical bearing? 
The attitude of orthodoxy and to some extent that 
of science toward the strikingly new (see Le Bon), 
may be well likened to the management of a certain 
newspaper, which it was said never published any 
news until it was well known by everybody. 

SPIRIT TESTIMONY AND THE SPIRIT SPHERES 

In this testimony to a surrounding spirit world, a 
reference is in place here as to the spiritual spheres 
so called. And in the nature of the case, we must 
look for evidence from the spirit world as to the spir- 
itual infolding and overlaying of our earth, and as to 
the extension and outreaching of that world into the 
unknown and illimitable regions beyond. The direct 



108 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

witness here is of course our spirit friends ; and look- 
ing upon us they may well say as did the early apos- 
tles — " For we cannot but speak the things which 
we have seen and heard." There seems to be a gen- 
eral consensus of agreement among spirit witnesses, 
that our planet is environed by a series of spiritual 
abodes or worlds one beyond the other (not above, 
for strictly speaking there is no above only beyond). 
These spirit worlds are spoken of as spheres, at times 
as belts or zones or spirit planets consisting of ethe- 
real or spiritual substance, and as encircling our 
earth something like the rings around the planet 
Saturn. These spheres are fixed in their relation to 
our planet and revolve around with it, thus showing 
a certain gravitational attachment — which by the 
way we might anticipate if spirit substance is a sub- 
limated form of earth matter. These spheres are 
described as extending from above or beyond our 
atmosphere far into the ethereal regions, and as be- 
coming more rarefied and refined until they blend 
with the spheres of other planets. 

" If we could go to the outermost circle of this 
wonderful system of worlds of progressive life, we 
should undoubtedly find ourselves coming in touch 
with the outermost etherealized condition of some of 
the grand and beautiful planets which are moving 
along their course in space." [Spirit, John Pier- 
pont.] 

We are told there is no line of demarcation between 
the spirit habitations, but one merges into another by 
degrees, inappreciably, so that they form a har- 
monious whole surpassing all description on the part 
of spirit or comprehension on the part of mortal. 



OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 109 

" I went out to the next sphere, not so far away by 
distance but opening like a transformation scene in 
the theater or like the outlines of some mountain show- 
ing through the mist." There seems to be more or 
less of free interchange in passing from one sphere or 
condition to another, and yet there are certain 
natural and spiritual limitations inherent in the na- 
ture of the spirit world and spirit body and the on- 
ward progress of the soul. And so subtly interre- 
lated are embodiment and soul over there, and so 
expressive a mirror is the body of soul, that the 
spirit body itself seems to be a determining factor in 
a harmonious home. 

There is frequent reference to the third sphere or 
country beyond our atmosphere, which seems to be a 
natural home for the normally developed spirit. 
From this sphere there seems to be more or less ready 
access to the regions directly beyond and also to the 
earth plane itself, though in cases with a sense of dis- 
comfort and oppression. In the borderland region 
between the physical and the spiritual, we are told 
there are many undeveloped and earth-bound spirits, 
who are affiliated to the gross life of the earth in their 
bodies and desires and aspirations, and who will have 
to work out the salvation with fear and trembling 
which they failed to work out here. In " The Com- 
ing Science " Mr. Carrington gives an interesting ac- 
count of an old saloon converted into a dwelling- 
house, which was haunted by the former frequenters 
of this low resort. In particular, one low spirit gave 
the lady of the house much trouble, the nature of 
which for some time greatly puzzled her. There are 
outermost celestial spheres, which seem to be as be- 



110 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

yond the range of our spirit friends over there as 
beyond our access here, and which would seem to 
require ages of progress in character and holiness to 
attain. These celestial illuminated spirits may be 
seen in the far distance, and they seem to have a 
guiding and controlling care of those nearer earth, 
as our spirit friends nearer earth have an angelic 
care over us. But to pass to a very high sphere, 
we are told, involves a change like passing out of our 
physical body here into the nearer world of spirit, for 
the first spirit body must be freed from grosser ele- 
ments and conditions before it can be harmonized with 
a more spiritual abode. The resurrection truth, so 
grandly expressed in I Corinthians 15, seems in the 
large sense to be a process of birth and refinement. 
But death as experienced here is of course utterly 
unknown in spirit. " And there shall be no more 
death." 

Moreover, we are given to understand that every 
planet in the universe of space inhabited by personal 
entities, has its own spiritual environment, which is 
designed as the next stage onward when these in- 
telligences have completed their physical experience. 
And generally speaking, the spirit world is the uni- 
verse itself, and stretches from planet to planet and 
sun to sun. And modern study of the ether, as we 
have seen, makes this very credible. 

There would, then, seem to be room enough. Have 
we not sometimes queried — Where is the room over 
there for the vast multitudes of earth of all the cen- 
turies and lands as numberless as the sands of the 
sea? In the spirit teaching given, that question is 
fairly solved. It goes without saying, there is endless 



> 



OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 111 

room in an endless universe. In the case of the spirit 
domain contiguous to our own planet, it must be 
enormously spacious. We have only to consider the 
enormous disproportion existing between the size of 
the planets and their distances from the sun and each 
other, and with this the immense surface area of the 
spirit spheres. Prof. Young (" Lessons in Astron- 
omy") estimates that our earth is like a pea re- 
volving around a globe two feet in diameter at a 
distance of 215 feet. It is even stated that the 
amount of matter in the cosmos may be considered 
almost infinitesimally small compared with the endless 
stretches of ether-filled space. " And yet there is 
room." 

I will here insert, as in a degree illustrative of the 
different spiritual spheres, three spirit messages (the 
first two now published for the first time) which I 
consider thoroughly trustworthy. 

" My dear friends : 

" I was sure there was a way to return and let you 
know how we survived the great change. If Jesus 
Christ returned as the Bible says, I knew it must be 
a truth that all could do so. I have not been here long, 
but it is a glorious country as far advanced from earth , 
as you can conceive. It is not working for money here, 
but for being the kindest and best-hearted and helping 
the most. This is a real golden rule world, and I love 
to live in it. It seems worth while to have passed 
through earth to find harbor so cheerful and hopeful. 
[S. N., June 22, '98.] 

" I have been permitted to listen to the inspirations 
which have been given through sensitive spirits here by 
those inhabiting far-off spheres. And while all are in- 
structive, seeming to come from holy minds, there is 



112 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

the same well-guarded secret as to God. Beautiful be- 
yond description was the language of one spirit who 
purported to come from a sphere of holiness. . . . 
There are those who are permitted to enter a pure 
sphere, but they never tarry, they are as restless as the 
ocean. What is supreme happiness to the inhabitants 
of a pure atmosphere, is not so to those not advanced 
so far. 

" Father Ambrose. " 

But we need another testimony to close this brief 
transcript of the spirit spheres and life therein, not 
concerning the normal or the highest and holiest, but 
the lowest ranges. The extracts following are from 
a remarkable message published in the " Harbinger 
of Light," Melbourne, on a visit of Mr. W. T. Stead 
to the places of darkness or prison houses of the 
spirit world. If we have followed the accounts of 
Mr. Stead, the spirit personality, in " My Father " 
and elsewhere, we may reasonably hold that his rich 
communicative powers did not cease with his " hasty 
death in the bitter sea." And no better sermon 
could be given in our churches on the reaping of evil 
than this article thrilling with life and profound 
earnestness. 

" It is not all joy, all delight in this wonderful 
land. Let me assure you that 'there are hells over 
here. . . . Do not think that any earthly rank — 
pope, cardinal, emperor, king, or potentate of any 
kind — any earthly possessions whatever can give 
immunity from the law of justice and love over here. 
Good as it has been to write about the surpassing 
beauty, the ineffable joy encircling those who have 
lived up to their highest ideals, it is just as important 



OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 113 

for the world to know of the hells awaiting depraved 
souls. They are simply filled with horror and dis- 
may at finding the result of evil deeds. . . . But 
there is no eternal punishment, which is a monstrous 
fallacy -- — one of the cruelest and most wicked dog- 
mas that ever darkened the souls of mankind." He 
speaks of the blasphemy of ecclesiastical remission 
of sins and its fettering of the soul, and adds — " It 
is one of the immutable laws of the universe that each 
soul must and can only grow from within." He 
dwells upon the insensate madness of war, and of the 
thousands hurried over there dazed and unfit for 
spiritual life. . . ." It was my privilege to speak to 
some of these outcast spirits. As Christ went to 
speak to the spirits in prison, I reminded them that 
each of them could be a Christ." 

" Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; for whatso- 
ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 

DIFFICULT TO CONCEIVE OF SPIRIT 
ADAPTATIONS 

It is a difficulty associated with the reactions of 
spirit and the law of gravitation. And the diffi- 
culty of course inheres in our material besetment and 
conditions here, and long experience therein. In 
" Ivanhoe," when the Saracen was told by the cru- 
sader, that in the north country water became hard 
so that one could walk over it, the story was looked 
upon as a monstrous assertion. We cannot well 
transcend our experience, but careful study of the 
problem may remove the unreasonable elements. As 
our son, Walter, said to us from the other side, 
" One has to come over in order to know." Or as 



114 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

another communicator remarked — " Spirit can un- 
derstand spirit, but not mortal." Dr. Savage in his 
book, " Does Telepathy Explain? " states that spirit 
friends informed him, it was impossible to give com- 
prehensive descriptions of their present state of being. 

Here is the exceeding refinement of spirit. Its 
high vibratory potential places it in our invisible 
range, which adds of course greatly to our sense of 
unreality. And we are still affected no doubt by the 
age-long assumption that the flesh-and-blood condi- 
tion is the only real existence, and an earth of rock 
and soil that forcibly reacts upon us is the only sub- 
stantial world. This idea is lodged in us through a 
long physical experience, and it can be dislodged 
only through wider knowledge. 

There is the old notion that spirit is weak and 
powerless, the idea of the shade is still with us, that 
spirit is no longer capable of active assertion like the 
workman with his strong muscles. But how short- 
sighted! In the nature of things, it would seem that 
spirit cannot well act upon matter or only to an 
extent ; but that spirit can deal intimately and power- 
fully with spirit, even to a far greater and more 
subtle degree than we can act upon matter we have 
every reason to believe. ' 

In truth, the potentialities of body and spirit are 
the reverse of all our short-sighted and antiquated 
notions. Here, " Change and decay in all around I 
see." Our bodies are in constant flux, their tissues 
are decomposed and renewed incessantly till the proc- 
ess ends in dissolution. " We all do fade as a leaf." 
But while the flesh body is so highly unstable and 
subject to reactions of heat and cold, we can by no 



OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 115 

means so conceive of the spirit body. In the first 
place, it survives the destruction of the flesh ; and its 
substance we must conceive as primordial, ethereal, 
irreducible, incorruptible. Accounts agree that the 
psychic form has more or less admixture of earthy 
substance and dross when it passes over, but from this 
clogging matter the spirit may purge itself. It is 
clear the spirit body cannot be subject to the con- 
ditions and chemical changes of the old body. De- 
lanne concludes that, " Neither the heat of burning 
suns nor the freezing cold of infinite space can affect 
the incorruptible substance of the true spirit body." 
Then the problem of gravity faces us. Do we real- 
ize how the law and experience of gravity is a part of 
us, how it is interwoven into our entire life, present 
in every movement we make, in every step we take, 
and in all manifold observations of things about us ? 
Matter is well defined as that which has gravity or 
weight and fills space. And so all our endless as- 
sociations with substance and form are associations 
with gravity, the two are inseparable and well-nigh 
inconceivable without each other. We have ceased to 
wonder at the downward pull, and have come to re- 
gard it as an essential attribute of all forms. 
" But," says one, (D'Alembert), " it is not without 
reason that philosophers are astonished to see a stone 
fall, and those who laugh at their astonishment would 
soon share it themselves, if they would reflect on the 
subject." Some forms of matter, as iron and lead, 
have great weight because they have great density, but 
some rarefied forms are so little affected by the down- 
ward pull that they are buoyed up by the atmosphere, 
as an overspreading bank of clouds or the swarming 



116 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

invisible dust motes. It is only a step farther to 
more sublimated and refined emanations, more allied 
to the ether, which would not be affected by the pull 
of gravity or only in a slight degree. The world of 
ether is an imponderable world, and the world of spirit 
substance as intermediate between matter and ether, 
would seem to approximate the imponderability of the 
ether on the one hand, and still as ultimate matter re- 
tain a slight gravitational attachment to the earth. 
And this is the claim made for the world of spirit. 
" We are justified in conceiving," says Delanne, 
" that matter may exist in a state so rarefied that its 
molecular movements would liberate it completely 
from the influence of terrestrial gravitation. 

The absence of the heavy and oppressive gravities 
of earth is what we would naturally expect in the 
spiritual world, and therein doubtless will be found an 
advantage, a freedom and movement and power we 
can only faintly conceive in our present stage. In 
the Hibbert Journal, July, '11, Sir Oliver Lodge 
writes : " Nor need all grades of intelligence be 
clothed in matter or inhabit the surface of a planet. 
That is the kind of existence with which we are now 
familiar truly, and anything beyond that is for the 
most part supersensuous, but our senses are con- 
fessedly limited." He who holds up and holds to- 
gether the Pleiades, and girds Orion with a band, 
and has put our earth to spinning and whirling in 
an orbit, and has ringed Saturn with his belts, and 
canopied the sky with clouds, and holds all things 
in their places from the whirling atom to suns; has 
also ensphered our planet home and doubtless count- 
less other planets with their spiritual counterparts, 



OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 117 

making our orbital system and the sidereal S3'stem 
itself, we are told, a spiritual universe. 

IT WOULD SEEM TO BE ALTOGETHER FITTING 
THAT THE SPIRIT WORLD SHOULD BE RELATED 
TO OUR MOTHER EARTH 

In the eternal fitness of things, what could be more 
reasonable in any orderly succession than that we 
should find ourselves in due time in a spiritual world 
vitally belonging to our dear mother earth — in a 
new spiritual earth? What could better meet the 
needs of the soul in its natural and orderly develop- 
ment than an environment that is a spiritual repro- 
duction and counterpart of this former stage of ex- 
istence with many higher and unique possibilities of 
its own? And what could be more fitting in senti- 
ment ? Here we have had our experiences with physi- 
cal conditions, our lower training, we have countless 
associations and memories of this earth home and ties 
that bind. What seems then the more in order — 
that we should take a sudden and everlasting farewell 
of everything savoring of earth, or that in various 
ways we should retain some connection with the home 
of our beginnings? And this vital connection we 
would look for in a spiritual alliance and similitude 
of worlds, and in spirit return to friends and the 
scenes of our childhood stage. The soul in its on- 
ward progress may be weaned from the earth in time, 
and the earth itself may be dissolved, but we cannot 
think the old home, the birth-place, will be utterly 
forgotten even in that larger spiritual universe which 
remains and abides forever. This earthly sphere is 
as near to God as any of Dante's planets or any of 
the countless suns that swing in space, and its 



118 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

vicinity we would consider as much more homelike. 

Let us then rid ourselves of the ancient notion 
that the world of spirit is utterly disrupted from our 
present order and dwelling-place. Let us also rid 
ourselves of the notion that there is one enormous 
Miltonic heaven, impossible of location, which is the 
common receptacle of souls from all worlds. To say 
the least, it would not conduce to home feeling to 
be switched off so far into the infinite depths as to 
lose all our bearings and to cause the familiar con- 
stellations and celestial waymarks overhead to lose all 
configuration. 

The Bible gives many intimations of the proximity 
of an interested and guiding spirit world — intima- 
tions clothed more or less in supernatural garb. 
The priestly prohibition of communion with the dead 
tended no doubt to that uncertainty and scepticism 
of the future life so apparent in the Old Testament; 
so the many intimations of spirit return from Gene- 
sis to Revelation are the more ingenuous and eviden- 
tial as pointing to real incursions here and there 
from the spirit world. There is something back of 
these angel stories. * 

We may add that the guidance and guardianship 
of our angel friends as far as we are responsive is 
one of the most assuring and certified tenets of spirit 
philosophy. Dr. Savage considers that a good deal 
of " Special Providence " finds its explanation on 
the human side in multiplied and well-attested in- 
stances of spirit ministry. It is interesting to lay 
aside our predilections derived from Jewish angel- 
ology and make a little psychic inquiry ourselves. 



OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 119 

" Are they not all ministering spirits ? " " The 
angel of the lord encampeth round about them that 
fear him, and delivereth them." " For he shall give 
his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy 
ways." " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to 
my Father, and he shall presently give me more than 
twelve legions of angels?" "And it came to pass 
that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels 
into Abraham's bosom." The terms " angel " and 
" man " are interchangeable. " And Cornelius said, 
at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and be- 
hold, a man stood before me in bright clothing." 
" And they said unto her, Thou are mad. But she 
constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said 
they, It is his angel." " And entering into the 
sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right 
side, clothed in a long white garment." 



CHAPTER VIII 

HISTORIC APPROACH TO THE SPIRIT 

BODY 

" For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this 
mortal must put on immortality." 

In the way of orderly succession, let us supple- 
ment the historic approach to the spirit world by a 
brief historic approach to the spiritual body. The 
spiritual body as we now conceive it in its refinement 
and power and origin, is the development of a long 
philosophical and spiritualizing process. The old in- 
quiry — " With what body do they come?" — has 
received varying answers and vast argumentation. 
As we glance over the ground — What resurrection 
philosophies have sought to justify themselves here, 
and have labored hard to fill this seeming gap in the 
economy of our embodiment ! The question is to the 
point. The soul, " the spark in the clod," must of 
course have a new body as the old clod is dissolved. 

ALIEN LOOK OF SPIRIT BODY 

But the new body has seemed to be outside of range 
and observation, and so the supernatural and tran- 
scendent have been invoked to a large degree in this 
persistent and noble effort to rehabilitate the soul. 
The result is, the spiritual body has long had an alien 
and far-away look. Taking certain theories of the 

past and present, it has seemed to us like a strange 

120 



HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 121 

visitor out of the unknown in the manner of the New 
Jerusalem let down from heaven. It is a stranger 
with no origin or ancestry to speak of, and hardest 
of all to reconcile in this unifying age, it represents 
no vital personal expression of our life and organ- 
ism that we can understand. Such a spirit body has 
a strangely artificial look, it seems to be called up 
out of the void to meet a case of opportunism, it 
is apocalyptic in its wonder and out of joint with 
life. 

The author of that interesting book, " The 
Christian Hope," — Dr. Brown of Union Seminary 
— writes thus of the situation (page 96): "It is 
not strange that there should be many in our day 
who find in the doctrine of the resurrection a cause 
of serious perplexity. Some put it aside altogether 
as belonging to a world of thought which they have 
outgrown. Others hold the fact, but without clear 
understanding." And all this, we have to conclude, 
has been due to real or seeming lack of material and 
orderly vision, the universe has seemed to furnish 
scant material and scant room for such a body. 

RESURRECTION IDEAS OF PAUL AND HIS TIME 

Let us go back to Paul and especially Paul's world 
for a moment. And first of all, we owe to Paul a 
great debt of gratitude that in an age of such crude 
ideals and outlooks, he spiritualized the future em- 
bodiment and rescued it from the bare and unpro- 
gressive materialism of Jewish and Egyptian thought. 
If one believed in a resurrection at all in those times, 
he believed as a matter of course in the reunion of the 
risen spirit with the body, for this was the only resur- 



122 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

rection that seemed worth while. Without the 
physical organism, existence seemed aimless and 
hopeless. For the soul was not the man, that was 
like a thin shadow with a thin, piping voice, the real 
man was the body. Now with Paul the resurrection 
was a matter of vision. His own vision of the risen 
Christ in the spiritual body, and the profound spir- 
itual refining of his own nature, prepared him to see 
the physical in its true order and limitations and to 
exalt the spiritual body to a transcendent plane of 
power and glory. " Now this I say, brethern, that 
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God : " 
this was a great contention with Paul in opposition 
to the crude short-sightedness of his time, this was 
his great contribution to the resurrection. 

THE UNDERWORLD 

But Paul, with all his spiritual insight, could not 
be expected to wholly free himself from the influence 
of contemporary thought and his rabbinical training. 
He must needs show his human quality as a man of his 
age. We are on the quest for the spirit body, and 
this must take us a little farther into the thought 
world of Paul's time, and especially the underworld. 
In fact, one needs to live in that underworld for a 
period, to roam through its gloomy recesses with 
JEneas and Ulysses, in order to fix it in the back- 
ground of one's mind, and to be fully impressed with 
the Old Testament viewpoint and the underlying 
thought of the New Testament. In Hebrew, Greek, 
and Roman thought, we know that all souls went 
down into this vast cave of the underworld where 
they were held captive by death, so straitened was 



HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 123 

this old world to find a suitable home for the soul. 
Life in the underworld, we learn, was a shadowy, un- 
desirable existence, and even to the Hebrew it was 
a land of darkness, and emptiness, where those that 
went down into silence praised not the Lord (Psalm 
115: 17). "There is no work, nor device, nor 
knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol whither thou goest." 

THE HEBREWS DEVELOPED A RISING-UP 
FROM THE UNDERWORLD 

But here where the Greek and Roman mind lacked 
in vision and saw no deliverance, it remained for the 
Hebrews, the world's teachers in religion, to develop 
under national trial and suffering the noble idea 
of a rising up again from Sheol of the faithful Jews, 
at the appearing of their great deliverer, the Messiah. 
Such would be reclothed with their bodies, share in 
the judgment of the nations, and in the glory of the 
Messianic kingdom upon the earth. And though 
mixed with much dross, this vision held a great 
divine and prophetic element. Now Paul had been 
schooled in this eschatology of his time. And when 
he refined the Jewish idea and transferred it to the 
Christian scheme, he evidently means the rising up 
again from this underworld, from Sheol, hades, the 
prison house of the dead, or the condition of the 
dead. This gives the word, resurrection, its full con- 
tent of meaning. The writer of I Peter states that 
Christ went and preached to these spirits in prison, 
and Paul plainly held that Christ broke the bands 
of death and gave a demonstration that death can- 
not hold men captive, and thus became the first 
fruits of them that slept. " When he ascended up 



124 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto 
men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that 
he also descended first into the lower parts of the 
earth" (Eph. 4:8-9). 

" O death, where is thy sting? 
O hades, where is thy victory? " 

PAUL'S HOUSE FROM HEAVEN 

But how and when does the spiritual body come 
in in Paul's magnificent exposition of the rising up? 
Now Paul had little use for the old body, he distinctly 
implies that the body which is buried is not to be 
raised, and it is not clear that he signifies any vital 
connection between the two. The principle of life 
in the wheat finds a new body in the plant, but we 
can hardly press this symbol more than to indicate 
that to the soul also God will give a new body as it 
pleaseth him. But Paul could not raise up the spirit 
and leave it unclothed, that would be a poor and in- 
effective resurrection indeed, somehow and some- 
where suitable clothing must be provided. Paul had 
not heard of psychic research, and the suggestions 
and constructive potencies of the ether of space were 
not in his line or for his day. And here is where 
Paul felt the necessity of falling back upon the 
thought forms of his time, and he found at hand a 
fruitful suggestion in the Jewish doctrine of heavenly 
patterns. The spiritual body must be reserved in 
heaven unto the appointed time of its revealing. 

" For we know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, 
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 



HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 125 

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed 
upon with our house which is from heaven." 

The tabernacle and the temple and all their fur- 
nishings were constructed strictly according to heav- 
enly patterns, which gave to them a peculiar sanctity. 
" See that thou make all things according to the pat- 
tern shown to thee in the mount." Jerusalem was 
the copy of a holier and heavenly city prepared by 
God to be the home of the saints. And so the spir- 
itual body would be revealed from heaven, and the 
waiting souls in Sheol be resurrected and reclothed at 
the triumphant second advent of the Messiah in that 
generation. The heavenly pattern, like and yet un- 
like the spiritual counterpart, was a philosophical 
speculation of Paul's time, and it gave to him a sense 
of reality which it is far indeed from having for 
us. And the lack of reality is due to the fact that 
the heavenly pattern is disjointed from the earthly 
existence and impersonal to it. 

"For of the soul the body form doth take, 
For soul is form, and doth the body make. ,, 

A WORD ON MIRACLE 

Nevertheless, Paul gives us a wonderful approach 
to the spiritual body. In brief, we may state his 
philosophy as the resurrection of the unclothed spirit 
from the sleep-like existence of the underworld, its 
reclothing in a spiritual body reserved in heaven, and 
the transformation of the bodies of the living " in 
the twinkling of an eye at the last trump." It is 
wonderful what Paul did with his material at hand, 
but we note that when the exigency seemed to de- 



126 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

mand, he could easily in that apocalyptic and un- 
critical age fall back upon the supernatural. The 
miracle-loving instinct had large scope in Paul's 
world, but our world is one of scientific method, and 
natural causations, and vital and unifying relations. 
The inevitable conclusion of our time is that the im- 
manence of God in his universe tends to make mira- 
cle superfluous, and that miracle ensues as the natural 
result of the externalization of God. Because we be- 
lieve in God in the midst of His works, we believe in 
a vital, inner process of reclothing the soul dependent 
upon the inherent, provisional powers of nature. An 
outside process depends upon an outside God. It 
is held that we can comprehend spiritual things with- 
out the startling accompaniments of violated law; 
and we may hold that all the furnishings demanded 
in the career of the soul will come not in apocalyptic 
marvels but in the natural order. 

" And so no more our hearts shall plead 

For miracle and sign, 
Thy orcler and thy faithfulness 

Are all in all divine/ ' 

MODERN PROGRAMS OF THE RESURRECTION 

As for modern programs of the resurrection, we 
know how they have partaken of the nature of Jew- 
ish and Pauline eschatology with additions of their 
own. The gradual elimination of the underworld, 
and the substitution of a grave resurrection for an 
underworld resurrection, served to perpetuate the 
crude original idea of a body rising, for there was 
nothing to rise from the grave but the body. This 
necessitated a larger element of the miraculous than 



HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 127 

Paul made use of, involving as it did the utterly in- 
conceivable reunion of the scattered and transformed 
particles of the body into a vital whole, and then its 
spiritualization. How persistent was the hold of this 
idea, one has only to read the inscriptions on the me- 
morial tablets of our cemeteries down to the middle 
of the last century, or the running chapter title in 
the A. V. over I Corinthians 15 — " The resurrection 
of the body " — still to be seen. Of the later theories, 
we need notice but one — the putting on of some kind 
of an unknown body at death that shall serve as a 
make-shift for the soul's tenancy through an inter- 
mediate state, and the assumption of the real resur- 
rection body at some spiritual disclosure in the fu- 
ture. But it need hardly be said that this later ac- 
commodation is distinctly Jewish in its derivation and 
development, and that the primal idea of the rising- 
up has been entirely lost. 

" LET US HEAR THE CONCLUSION OF THE 
WHOLE MATTER" 

We conclude that a great vital, divine truth is 
never lost, though it fails to find an adequate and 
permanent expression from age to age. The form 
may serve its purpose in the divine economy and pass 
away or the dross therein, but the informing soul, 
the truth itself shall live forever. The resurrection 
was the natural form this truth of persistent life ne- 
cessitated for the early church, but the truth is 
greater than all resurrection speculations that have 
gathered around it. But we conclude also that our 
quest so far after the spiritual body has failed. No 
one knows " whence it cometh nor whither it goeth." 



128 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

All pre-arranged embodiments patterned after the 
Messianic apocalyptic lamentably fail to satisfy crit- 
ical analysis or to bring lasting conviction. The 
mysticism of a reclothing at some undefined stage 
after death, seems too much like a labored effort to 
save the face of the Jewish end-of-the-world resur- 
rection. We acknowledge the service of the resur- 
rection doctrine in relating past generations to the 
future life, but the archaic symbol has been preserved 
too long in the interest of veneration, and we may now 
justly pronounce it as one of the most Judaistic, 
artificial, unscientific, disjointed, and fluctuating of 
all dogmas. Dr. Brown in his able work acknowl- 
edges at this point — " It is difficult to go farther 
if we would " ; and other theological writers of our 
time ignore the subject of the resurrection and treat 
simply of the future life. The situation seems to be 
this : We believe in the spiritual body, but we have 
no longer any theory of it, there seems to be no ma- 
terial for it,, and our notions of space and residence 
give it no room in the universe. 

WHY NOT LOOK FOR THE SPIRITUAL BODY IN 
THE NATURAL ORDER? 

Does not the collapse of all resurrection theories 
and body substitutes and metaphysical subtleties, 
suggest, not the loss of the vital truth, but some 
striking and radical defect in this age-long search? 
And may we not well ask ourselves if this defect is 
not due to the failure to bring the spiritual body out 
of the inherited thought form of the apocalyptic into 
the natural order? May not the truth be so vital, 
and personal, and close at hand, and interwoven with 



HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 129 

our present existence that it has been largely over- 
looked? What if the spirit body and the spirit 
world be like the moral imperative in their nearness? 
" Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into 
heaven or who shall descend into the deep? But the 
word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thine 
heart." No wonder the situation is discomposing, 
and many minds take an agnostic attitude. It is 
certainly high time that the spirit habiliment was 
shorn of its long-time crude and devitalized treat- 
ment, and a return made to the open-minded and cre- 
ative spirit which the genius of Paul gave to it in 
his day. If Paul were among us toda}^ who can 
doubt that with his power of creative appropriation 
he would utilize all the light of the science and re- 
search of our day without fear or prejudice in fur- 
ther illuminating his great discussion in I Corinthians 
15? We must frankly admit that the word, " resur- 
rection," has lost its ancient content, its Hebrew and 
medieval meaning; we can use it now only by way 
of accommodation. What we need, imperatively, is 
to recognize the vital union and interaction between 
the future spirit embodiment and the present, its nat- 
ural growth and development, its constructive re- 
sponse to the physical, intellectual, moral, and re- 
ligious life of the individual. We have great reason 
to believe that death is a real birth of the spirit 
body into the spirit world — as much of a birth as 
our entry into this physical world. Both take nour- 
ishment and growth from their environment, both 
emerge into a new world for a new life, and both are 
illustrative of the law that it is the province of all 
life to provide its own body. Both belong to the 



130 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

great natural order and resistless movement of life; 
only what men have mistakenly and pessimistically' 
called death is life, birth into a new and larger world. 

THE SOUL INSEPARABLE FROM A SPIRIT 
ENVELOPE 

Let us note further. Psychic Science may be said 
to show that the soul does not exist as an ideal, im- 
material entity. But the soul or thinking Ego, the 
divine spark or flame, is evidently inseparable from a 
certain envelope or embodiment of refined and ordi- 
narily invisible material. This subtile body is spoken 
of by some psychic writers as the perisprit, the 
around-the-spirit (peri, around, and spiritus, spirit). 
The sanctuary of our inner being seems to be as in- 
accessible and well-guarded as the secret of God. 
It may be premature to cite spirit testimony here, but 
it may help to clearness: "Wherever the spirit is 
incarnated, it is always associated intimately with 
the perisprit-, which is more or less ethereal according 
to the condition of moral advancement of the spirit. 
So that for us the idea of spirit is inseparable from 
that of a form of some sort, we cannot conceive the 
spirit without it. The perisprit forms an integral 
part of the spirit." 

Between the spirit and this inner rarefied envelope 
there seems to be the closest connection. It would 
seem that the spirit cannot individualize or manifest 
without it, and it is especially difficult to see how it 
could preserve continuity and escape diffusion with- 
out this protection. The nature of the soul is be- 
yond us, in its source we hold it to be an individual- 
ized expression of the infinite Life, but when we 



HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 131 

conceive of the soul as thus set apart we must have a 
vehicle — and a stable vehicle. We cannot conceive 
of the soul as naked, as unclothed upon in any crisis 
of its career. This gross physical body may fit it 
for the temporary training of this phase of existence, 
but if the soul is constituted and endowed for im- 
mortality there must be some vehicle of transition 
when the old body is shed. 

We know that theology has assumed, perforce, 
that at the crisis of death, the unclothed spirit will 
receive some kind of a body awaiting the resurrec- 
tion. But where does this suddenly exigent body 
come from? Is it manufactured on the demand of 
an emergency? The notification must be extremely 
short in the case of the many bodies dismembered by 
explosions in this present explosive war. How is the 
essence of the soul to escape dissipation into chaos 
in such an instantaneous exigency? Is it possible 
that we have a disruption here, and in the highest 
life of the world? Is it possible that the evolution- 
ary forethought which is so conspicuous elsewhere in 
the scheme of life has failed -here at the highest point? 
Or shall we give up all thinking here and content 
ourselves with falling back upon the easy supernat- 
uralism of Paul's time? 

But this is only a part of the difficulty when we 
premise the spirit in man as pure incorporeal es- 
sence. The embodiment is the register of the soul, 
of its struggles and attainments and aspirations ; it 
is a character impression and growth. But what 
personal element, what life history do we have in a 
body which we put on as we put on a new suit of 
clothes ? And what becomes of the treasures of mem- 



132 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

ory connected with the old body which relate life in 
continuity and unity? What becomes of the impres- 
sions registered upon the brain when this plastic 
receiver is dissolved? Does not the materialist have 
the advantage in claiming that the records are scat- 
tered and lost? Two conceptions of the soul have 

contributed largely to a disbelief in the future life 

one that the soul is a function of the nervous system, 
the other that it is an immaterial essence which at 
death would seem to resolve back by the loss of in- 
dividuality into the All of things. 

But suppose that most intimately interpenetrating 
this fleshly organism we have the subtile spirit form, 
a necessary intermediary in the reactions of the spirit 
upon the outer form and in shaping it and preserving 
its identity, then the easily-conceivable dissipation 
of the psychic energy with the loss of memory's 
treasures is at least no longer easily-conceivable. 
Suppose that iji these vital correspondences of nature 
the brain has its spirit counterpart, then we have a 
natural and rational basis for a far deeper and more 
permanent registering and for the preservation of 
the records of our mental life. Instead of a ma- 
terialistic we have a spiritualistic view of life, for man 
is already a spirit entity and does not become such 
in some incomprehensible way at death. It goes 
without saying that Spiritualism has always empha- 
sized this view of man — that man is by nature trip- 
artite, consisting of body, soul, and spirit; and the 
testimony of psychic science is also emphatic here. 
Trance phenomena can find no reasonable explana- 
tion except on the ground of this interior spirit body, 
which in trance vacates the organism (though main- 



HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 133 

taining vital connection), while re-possession is es- 
tablished more or less and the brain controlled by 
the spirit intermediary. 

We may add in brief that the existence of the psy- 
chic enswathement as a constant accompaniment of 
the spirit is affirmed in many ways — by spirit com- 
munications; by the minute descriptions of clairvoy- 
ant mediums ; by photographs as those attested by 
Alfred Russell Wallace; by materializations of vari- 
ous degrees from a simple vision to a concrete form 
which can walk and talk and act upon matter; and 
in a wonderfully convincing way by hypnotic ex- 
periments like those conducted by De Rochas, Dr. 
Baraduc, etc. (" Evidences for a Future Life." 
Part II.) De Rochas, it is asserted, succeeded in es- 
tablishing the objectivity of the luminous aura, that 
these emanations from the body are of variable col- 
ors, and most remarkable of all he caused the mag- 
netic or spirit body of the hypnotized subject to ex- 
teriorize and manifest as an apparition. We have 
only room to summarize here ; the reader is referred 
to the detailed experiments. Finally that the spirit 
in the living body as well as the spirit of the de- 
parted can manifest as an apparition has long been 
thoroughly attested. (" More than two thousand 
well-attested cases now exist of such apparitions of 
the living.") 

There are many reliable cases on record where the 
inner fluidic body or double frees itself temporarily 
from the physical body. Among the cases mentioned 
by Delanne, there is an interesting account of a 
young French engraver who in the evening was 
seized with a strange lassitude. He felt giddy and 



134 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

suddenly found himself transported from a reclining 
posture to the middle of the room. At first he 
thought of a dream, but felt that no dream was ever 
so intensely real, in fact he felt an unusual sense of 
reality. Then the idea presented itself that he was 
dead. Looking at his body or what he thought his 
corpse, he saw it breathing and was surprised to find 
he was able to see the interior of his chest and his 
heart beating feebly. He thought the lamp too near 
the bed and touched the lever of the extinguisher to 
put it out, but found that pull as he might with his 
fingers he made no impression upon it. He stood in 
front of the mirror, but found that he saw through 
the mirror, and through the wall into the adjoining 
room which though dark was in a measure illuminated 
by a ray of light from his person. The idea oc- 
curred to him to penetrate this room which was va- 
cant at the time. No sooner willed, than he found 
himself through the partition and in the apartment, 
he knew not how. He inspected the room and fixed 
the details in his mind, and the titles of some books 
in the library. He finally returned to the body and 
woke up stiff and cold in the morning lying on the 
sofa. He had never before been in the neighboring 
room, and finding an excuse to enter the next day he 
found the furniture, the pictures, and the titles of 
the books exactly as he had noted in his strange visit 
in the spirit. 

Delanne considered this a clear case of the exteri- 
orization of the ego, showing that the fluidic double 
or spirit body possessing a definite form, has the 
power of passing through material objects, and of 
transporting itself at will, and that its vision is more 



HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 135 

penetrating than in the normal state. He adds: 
" This inability to operate upon solid matter is a 
difficulty common to all discarnate spirits, but it can 
be overcome by an energy drawn from material bod- 
ies." Usually such experiences are much less vivid 
and impress the brain faintly. 

But there is another question that needs to be 
noted here in passing. 

WITH WHAT KIND OF A BODY DID THE RISEN 
CHRIST COME? 

Did he come with the supernaturally reanimated 
physical body as past centuries have held, or with 
the natural spiritual body? The contradictory and 
supernatural accounts in the gospels have led to some 
extreme views — from the rejection of their historic 
value as by Prof. Nathaniel Schmidt, to the theory 
of Mr. Brierly of a deep spiritual impression pro- 
duced upon the minds of the disciples. But one 
theory is needlessly radical, and the other too tenu- 
ous. Now the best thought of our time points to the 
reappearance as in the spiritual body. The first 
recorded appearance of Christ was to Paul, and if 
we do not refine this away to a subjective impression, 
it was unmistakably in the spirit embodiment. And 
we have every reason to believe, and psychic research 
abundantly sustains the belief, that such was the 
manner of his other appearances, naturally more or 
less misinterpreted especially with lapse of time, and 
embodied in two contradictory accounts in the gos- 
pels. Dr. Brown (1912) plainly holds this view — 
that Christ re-appeared in his spiritual body, that 
the testimony of Paul, the first witness, tends to 



136 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

confirm this, and that in the gospel stories of the 
rising we have the interweaving of two traditions, an 
earlier and a modified later. " But some doubted." 
What could this mean but that the awesome impres- 
sion created in the minds of the beholders left some 
of them in doubt what the actuality was that lay 
behind this glimpse from the unseen ? " And their 
eyes were opened, and they knew him ; and he van- 
ished out of their sight." 

It is to the credit of Dr. Brown that in taking 
leave of the spiritual body, he could make such a 
significant inquiry as this : " Has matter wider pos- 
sibilities than our senses have yet been able to dis- 
cover, and must we conceive of the new body as phys- 
ical, though of an organization as much finer than 
that of the present body as the air is than the liquid 
into which extreme cold is able to precipitate it? " 
Let us have the truth of the spirit body, if not its 
demonstration ^at least its altogether presumptive 
evidence, even if the traditionalist fears it may give 
comfort and support to Spiritualism. If we have a 
real passion for the truth here, and are moved by 
something of the irrepressible spirit of this long 
search, and are conscious of a great and pressing 
burden of necessity for more light to shine into this 
valley and shadow of death, we shall lay aside our 
complacent prepossessions and gladly welcome the 
truth from any source the universe has to offer. 



CHAPTER IX 

IS THERE A WORD FURTHER ON THE 
ORIGIN AND DERIVATION OF SPIRIT? 

We are not looking for completeness of material 
which only the future can bring, but we want evi- 
dence and indications at least that have some ex- 
planatory value and that seem to fit well into the 
great scheme of things about us. An important 
witness to a truth is its harmony with the scheme 
of the universe. Now the human mind has always 
been intensely attracted and exercised in the search 
for origins, but there is no origin of equal importance 
if only for a reasonable and tentative acceptance, as 
this origin of spirit. And leaving behind apocalyptic 
creations, and divine fiats in world-making and dra- 
matic mythical origins, the great conviction remains 
that the natural order is flexible and comprehensive 
enough to include all origins and worlds. The 
method of the unknown and the unseen is the exten- 
sion of the method of the known and the seen. If 
the physical world with its infinite life has come into 
being through a divine order of unfolding, one stage 
anticipating and preparing the way for another, 
what more reasonable than to assume a spirit order 
of unfoldment by like natural and vital processes? 
Thoughtful people accustomed to work out their 

spiritual as well as other problems, find persuasive 

137 



138 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

power in an explanation that explains on orderly 
lines. It would seem that great truths often come 
to us in this way, first a sudden glimpse, a faint 
prophecy of the true order, then a sense of " everlast- 
ing fitness " and its incorporation into our thoughts 
as we perceive more and more its relations to all 
truth. 

Shall we think of spirit as a derivation by some 
refinement process from related matter? We can 
hardly fail to see that there is a strong trend of 
thought in this direction, at least in regard to the 
natural and vital connection of the spirit body with 
the physical body, and by analogy and extension this 
will hold true of the spirit world as bordering, enfold- 
ing, and enlarging our earth world. It may well be 
that when our eyes are opened, we shall recognize 
that our sphere is larger than we had assumed, and 
that the coarse material globe is only the core of a 
derivative and. vastly larger spiritual globe which 
has not yet come within our powers of observation. 
We have seen the moon surrounded with a soft, re- 
splendent halo, seemingly extending far into space ; 
may not this be a symbol of a great reality ? There 
seems to be increasing evidence that there is a spirit- 
ual side to the universe, not only in a theological but 
scientific sense. Our earth has its spiritual counter- 
part and refines away into a spiritual planet, and 
what is true of our planet is said to be true of other 
planets ; and from spirit accounts there seem to be 
ethereal waves from the sun, not visible to earthly 
eye, that illumine and irradiate the spirit world with 
an indescribably soft and brilliant effulgence. 

A large literature in radio-activity has developed 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 139 

since Madame Curie's historic experiments with ra- 
dium, and we are now familiar with the refining away 
or atomic disintegration of matter and its passing 
into the invisible. Some scientists like Le Bon take 
the ground that " electrons like a species of slow and 
invisible evaporation are probably given off in a con- 
tinuous manner by every material substance and dif- 
fused into surrounding space." And a long list of 
European scientists have been experimenting in the 
psychic realm and with hypnotism, and one result is 
most interesting that the external man is more than 
the flesh and blood body. The idea of emanations 
from physical substance organic and inorganic is 
becoming familiar. Not a few scientists in spite of 
hostile prepossessions and materialistic bias, have 
crossed the seeming gulf between matter and 
spirit. 

SOME OBSERVATIONS OF THE AURA AND 
FLUIDIC BODY 

Now it may take some time for nature's hints and 
even attested observations to find an assured foothold 
in the mind. But the facts seem to be that there is 
vitally connected with the physical body a psychic 
radiation or emanation. It is spoken of as the aura 
or t spirit atmosphere, or magnetic effluvium, or peri- 
sprit as we have seen, and when disengaged as the 
magnetic, fluidic, or spirit body, or double. This 
emanation is claimed to be directly connected with 
the nervous system, it seems to be a subtle streaming 
from the nerves ; and the all-pervasive and exceed- 
ingly responsive nervous tissue would certainly sug- 
gest such a source. The wonderful radiation of 



140 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

nerves to all parts of the body for motor and sensory 
purposes, uniting all parts of the body into an or- 
ganism and controlling its functions, and resolving 
itself into such exceeding fineness — this magnetic 
master tissue of the body evidently brings us to the 
borderland of spirit. Observations, it is said, have 
often shown this exteriorization of nervous energy in 
neurasthenic patients, in cases of religious ecstasy 
and nervous dissociation, as a flickering halo about 
the head. It has been suggested that the martyr 
and saintly halo had its origin in this phenomenon. 
The aura, it is claimed, surrounds the person as a 
misty atmosphere or the perfume emanating from a 
flower; it is the magnetic envelope. And from the 
head, psychic experiments claim to show, there is 
evolved at times a globular misty mass termed the 
mental ball and connected by a vital ligament or lien 
to the body. The aura and mental ball have been 
photographed -by a radio-active process, and repro- 
ductions of the various bodily fluidic emanations 
with the mist-like perisprit have been given. (See 
experiments of De Rochas, Reichenbach, Baraduc, 
accounts by Delanne, Hampton's, 1909, etc.) 

" If the experiments of Reichenbach go for any- 
thing," says Mr. Carrington, " indeed there is very 
good evidence that such emanations take place." 
Reichenbach speaks of the magnetic effluvium as 
odylic force, and thus writes : " Human beings are 
luminous over nearly the whole surface, but espe- 
cially the hand, over the palm of the hand, the points 
of the fingers, the eye, certain parts of the head, the 
pit of the stomach, the toes, and so forth. Flaming 
emanations stream from all the points of the fingers, 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 141 

of relative great intensity, and in a line with the 
length of the fingers." 

A scientific observer, Dr. Hitchman, has stated 
" that from the cavity beneath the chest of the me- 
dium where is located the nerve center called the 
solar plexus, and from the same spot in the material- 
ized form, there has been noted a stream of rays of 
light, connecting the two bodies and illuminating the 
face of the medium. This phenonemon has been 
often observed during materializations." It is well 
known that the substance which builds up the visible 
spirit form is derived from the body of the psychic ; 
and this is shown in the way of careful tests show- 
ing distinct loss of weight, at times several pounds, 
by the ps}^chic during the experiment. 

And the magnetic body it is also claimed by ex- 
periment has been found to possess a certain weight 
and strength, and chemical qualities, and luminous 
effects in Crookes' tubes, allying it to common mat- 
ter. De Rochas showed that to wound the magnetic 
body, set free by hypnotism, inflicted a similar wound 
on the corresponding part of the physical body. He 
termed this " the exteriorization of the sensibility." 
This would seem to show the most intimate and de- 
rivative connection of this transcending, subtile body 
with the nervous system. By hypnotism, it is as- 
serted, the interior magnetic body has been coaxed 
out of the flesh body and sent on errands, and strange 
incidents of this kind are related. In sleep, the spirit 
body partially emerges from the physical organism, 
and it is suggested the way is thus opened for the 
recharging of the nervous system. Mr. Carrington 
in his treatment of sleep and dreams states : " Clair- 



142 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

voyant observation bears abundant testimony to the 
fact that when a man falls into deep slumber, the 
higher principles of the astral vehicle almost invari- 
iably withdraw from the body and hover in its im- 
mediate neighborhood." And in the trance state, 
which is deep or lethargic sleep, it may completely 
emerge, retaining its bodily connection through the 
magnetic cord. Did not Paul slip out of his phys- 
ical body in a certain great experience? (II Corin- 
thians 12:1-4.) 

Says Mr. Myers, who is certainly entitled to 
express himself with a note of authority here : " I 
claim that a spirit exists in man, and that it is 
healthy and desirable that this spirit should be thus 
capable of partial and temporary dissociation from 
the organism — itself enjoying an increased freedom 
and vision, and also thereby allowing some departed 
spirit to make use of the partially vacated organism 
for the sake of communicating with other spirits still 
incarnate on earth." 

Then it is well known that Psychic Research has 
detailed a great number of instances of apparitions 
of the living and the dead. Are these apparitions 
altogether hallucinations and telepathic visions, or 
are they ofttimes veritable objective manifestations? 
There are so many authenticated instances of psy- 
chic appearances in the research volumes " Phan- 
tasms of the Living " — the chapter on Apparitions 
in " The Widow's Mite," the Psychic Journals and 
elsewhere, that one has little excuse for not having 
a fair acquaintance with studies in this field. In the 
past, all such appearances have been complacently 
disposed of as superstition, but careful scientific in- 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 143 

vestigation has given them a standing more respect- 
able and objective. And though in cases the ap- 
parition may be impersonal — the projected eidolon 
or simulacrum of the spirit, as Mr. Myers observes 
— there are undoubtedly many instances in which 
spirit presence is absolutely necessary for any plain 
and reasonable account. And there is a wide dif- 
ference between an hallucination or telepathic im- 
pression, and a spirit being more or less materialized 
and brought for a brief minute within our range of 
visibility. Alfred Russell Wallace states the follow- 
ing considerations which indicate the reality of the 
apparition: the fact that the apparition is sometimes 
seen by several persons at once; that the apparition 
produces impressions upon domestic animals ; that 
physical effects are produced by the apparition ; and 
that they can be photographed. It seems very evi- 
dent that psychic phenomena are not simple but 
varied and complicated, and can by no means be 
neatly classified under some simple conception forci- 
bly stretched to cover all things, as a few writers 
have ambitiously attempted. Truth has a way oft- 
times of transcending our pigeon-holes and creeds. 
We very briefly note the following thoroughly ac- 
credited and easily accessible accounts of spirit 
manifestation through spirit substance from " My 
Father " the closing chapter, and " The Widow's 
Mite," page 179, etc. Miss Stead describes how 
her father, W. T. Stead, was able to manifest himself 
in the family group to eye and ear through materi- 
alization of face, and with audible voice saying — 
"It is all true." Dr. I. K. Funk, the well-known 
editor and a friend of Mr. Beecher, gives a wonderful 



144 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

account of how at a circle he saw the materialized 
face of the great preacher and conversed with him. 
" Sure enough there was the Beecher face, won- 
derfully life-like." . . . " Do you see my face 
clearly?" Mr. Beecher inquired. "It is with great 
difficulty that we come back into visible form. You 
have no adequate thought of the nature, the large- 
ness, and the complexity of the difficulties that must 
be surmounted by the spiritual world in order to re- 
turn in this way. ... I can no longer hold the force 
by which I have come — watch me closely." The 
image then disappeared, but before it sank out of 
sight a hand was placed upon Dr. Funk's shoulder. 
" The hand was substantial, very human." Mr. 
Beecher expressed an earnest desire to Dr. Funk that 
spirit communication might be so perfected that it 
should tend to lift the world out of materialism to a 
much higher plane. To dismiss such cases as these 
and other multiplied and accredited instances with 
a superior wave of the hand, shows at least little ap- 
prehension of the reality and substantiality of the 
spirit world. 

A most interesting account of materialized, after- 
death appearances is given in detail in the famous 
" Letters from Julia " by W. T. Stead. It was the 
spirit manifestation of Miss Julia Ames to her friend, 
Ellen, in fulfillment of a solemn covenant. I cite 
these few lines : " For some moments she stood 
there, smiling but silent. Ellen was too awe-struck 
to speak. The sudden and unmistakable fulfillment 
of the desire of her heart seemed to rob her of all 
faculty but that of feeling unspeakable joy. Then 
the figure slowly, almost imperceptibly dissolved 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 145 

away, and Ellen was once more alone." She only 
saw the light in the place where she had been stand- 
ing. She saw her friend on two occasions quite dis- 
tinctly; it was no hallucination, she knew it was 
Julia. 

THE SUGGESTIVENESS OF ALL THIS 

The suggestiveness of all this is most apparent. 
It shows what strange and unsuspected potencies are 
hidden away in the outer organism, and how intelli- 
gent are these energies or rather how intelli- 
gently directed in their silent, unheeded work of up- 
building, and how the divine workmanship is revealed 
in power when the great emergency is at the door. 
It is simply another biological miracle, we might say, 
and yet a miracle only because it has not become fully 
familiarized like other workings of nature perhaps 
of equal wonder. Of course we do not jump into a 
spirit body supplied to order so to speak as we would 
put on a new suit of clothes, but we are always put- 
ting it on in this life ; it grows with the outer body 
and grows with the soul. Such is the fluidity and ex- 
pressiveness of this interior organism that its devel- 
opment and nature are affected by our very thoughts 
and aspirations. " It is crude or fine according to 
the life which a man has lived; the consequence is 
that some people are born into the spirit world with- 
out the capacity to harmoniously relate themselves 
to its beatitudes. Nay more, their sordid, selfish, 
unspiritual life has dwarfed the development of their 
spiritual bodies, they are in the spirit world but not 
of it." Such is spirit testimony. In the earth life, 
it is said, spirit substance is allied with a lower order 



146 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

of matter, and differs as the spiritual quality of life. 

There would seem then to be a great extension of 
the bodily substance. Man is greater and more com- 
plex than he seems, and transcends himself in ways 
he has only dimly perceived or viewed as superstitions 
and incredible. The cases of spirit appearances in 
some form and stage of material condensation, the 
dissociation of the magnetic body in hypnotism and 
trance, the various magnetic effluvia of the body, as 
the aura and fluctuant halo, and the strange mental 
ball so often remarked, and other allied phenomena, 
all point to a spiritual side of our present organism. 

It is the confirmation of the far-seeing vision of the 
spiritual genius who wrote I Corinthians 15. May we 
not venture to think then of the inner body as vitally 
related to the mysterious nerve system and its mag- 
netic fires and woven out of its emanations? To a 
question on the assumption of the celestial body, the 
spirit response was — " It is with you now. It forms 
an ethereal, mystic covering for the nervous system, 
and it passes out or is expelled from the body by the 
electrical forces." 

WHAT TAKES PJLACE AT DEATH? 

But what about the final breaking-up of the con- 
nection between body and spirit? Are there any cir- 
cumstances in which this dissolution of partnership 
can be made to give any account of itself and to 
throw light upon the new body formation ? Now this 
is a problem to be approached like any other prob- 
lem. And if the solution is not readily open to us, 
shall we take it upon ourselves to affirm that no so- 
lution has been given by others, and that no solution 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 147 

whatever is possible? What takes place at what we 
call death? Now there is a considerable body of 
testimony, both from this and the other side of the 
veil, which bears directly upon this problem, and 
which in itself is most interesting and will stir the 
thought of any one who loves nature's unfolding 
ways of order and beauty. The separation or birth 
of the spirit body has been frequently noted and 
somewhat minutely described by certain seers pos- 
sessed of clairvoyant power. And of late years 
there have been some scientific observations of death 
phenomena through radio-photography, we are told, 
which unwittingly confirm clairvoyant and spirit 
testimony. The one-theory man would explain away 
independent clairvoj^ance, and as long as his main 
contention is for his theory he will probably see noth- 
ing that does not conform thereto. But that the gift 
of clairvoyance or clear seeing is possessed by cer- 
tain individuals — whether we explain it as a devel- 
opment of the inner spirit vision or in some other 
way — the average investigator can hold no doubt. 
The " discerning of spirits " in I Corinthians 12: 10 
would seem to indicate cases of clairvoyant vision. 

In brief, it is said that a light cloud is seen to 
form and thicken over the body of the dying person. 
As the lower limbs become cold, this cloud gathers 
towards the vital parts of the body. The process 
continues and the light cloud gradually becomes more 
dense and firm, and then assumes a globular shape 
and hovers over the head of the dying one. This 
globe of misty light is connected with the top of the 
head by a fine electric cord, a shining filament or lien. 
The next step is described as the assumption of form, 



148 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

the globe of light begins to assume the form and 
features of the person as in the earth life. Around 
this form other spirit forms are seen, the friends of 
the new-comer into spirit life, who seem to be able 
to aid the process at times, and who receive and wel- 
come the new-born one. Death seems to be birth to 
all intents, and we shall not be born into the other 
life unattended any more than when we came into this 
life. At length the magnetic cord separates, and the 
spirit lighter than air naturally and easily ascends 
to its spirit home. It is claimed that the psychic 
power of reluctant friends may make it hard for the 
spirit to find its freedom of release. 

It is known to many interested in the problems of 
the spirit that the seer, Andrew Jackson Davis, left 
on record a detailed account of what transpires at 
death. This beautiful and lucid description I con- 
dense somewhat as follows : " I saw that the phys- 
ical organism could no longer subserve the require- 
ments of the spiritual principle. But the various 
internal organs of the body appeared to resist the 
withdrawal of the animating soul. The body and 
soul, like two friends, strongly resisted the various 
circumstances which rendered their eternal separation 
imperative and absolute. Now the head of the body 
became suddenly enveloped in a fine, soft, mellow, 
luminous atmosphere. The process of dying or of 
the spirit's departure from the body was fully com- 
menced. . . . The head became intensely brilliant, 
and as the extremities of the organism grew cold the 
brain appeared light and glowing. Now I saw on 
the mellow spiritual atmosphere which emanated from 
and encircled her head, the indistinct outlines of the 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 149 

formation of another head. The new head unfolded 
more and more distinctly. In the identical manner 
in which the spiritual head was eliminated and or- 
ganized, I saw unfolding in their natural progressive 
order the neck, the shoulders, and the entire spiritual 
organization. While this spiritual formation was 
going on, the material body manifested to the outer 
vision many symptoms of uneasiness and pain, but 
these indications were totally deceptive. The spirit 
rose at right angles over the head or brain of the de- 
serted body. I saw playing energetically between 
the feet of the elevated spiritual body and the head 
of the prostrate physical body, a bright stream or 
current of vital electricity. This taught me that 
what is customarily called death is but a birth of the 
spirit from a lower into a higher state. I learned 
that the correspondence between the birth of a child 
into this world and the birth of the spirit from the 
material body into a higher world, is absolute and 
complete, even to the umbilical cord which was repre- 
sented by the thread of vital electricity which for a 
few minutes subsisted between and connected the two 
organisms together. I continued to observe the 
movements of her new-born spirit. She descended 
from her elevated position, which was immediately 
over the body, and I saw her pass through the ad- 
joining room and step from the house into the at- 
mosphere." . . . 

This clairvoyant account of what takes place at 
death would seem incomplete without adding a brief 
testimony from the other side. And so I take the 
liberty to quote a few sentences from a very beautiful 
account of spirit transition purporting to come from 



150 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

Rev. John Pierpont, a Unitarian minister, and poet, 
and avowed spiritualist for many years. " The sen- 
sation was one of pleasure and of infinite seren- 
ity. . . . Life was surging within me and it had 
no notion of being quelled. ... I noticed that 
the air seemed wondrously balmy and fragrant, that 
it was surcharged with glorious tints of perfect color, 
that billows upon billows of beautiful light were surg- 
ing around. . . . My attention was fastened upon 
the magnetic cord still holding me to the other body. 
For I was possessed now of a spirit form resembling 
somewhat the one I had vacated, yet stronger, 
lighter in sense of weight, more youthful and more 
comfortable. The slender cord had lost its power 
to contract toward the mortal, it appeared to me 
as a thread of light. This thread presently seemed 
to be endowed with life, for it began to scintillate 
and to pulsate toward myself as with vibrant power, 
until from this energetic action it became detached 
from the physical form, and became absorbed within 
my newly donned body." 

Whoever has read " Dr. Luke of the Labrador," 
will remember " Skipper Tommy " and his preach- 
ing to the dying girl. " { 'Tis but like wakin' from 
a troubled dream. 'Tis but wakin' to the sunlight 
of a new, clear day. . . . Hush! Don't you go 
gettin' scared. 'Tis a lovely thing that's comin' to 
you.' " 

Now all this is not a medieval or Miltonic picture 
of death, a king of terrors with hideous mien and 
upraised dart, and that is because death and the 
spirit body simply belong to the natural order. 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 151 

" Passing out of the shadow 
Into eternal day, 
Why do we call it dying, 
This sweet passing away? " 

ALLEGORY OF THE SPIRIT BODY AND SOUL 

The spirit body is coming to its own. This age- 
long quest for the spirit body and a home for the 
spirit body, is finding more and more assured 
results. When men follow the divine spirit of search 
within, they will discover the secret of the Lord in 
due time. In this great transition, as the soul in 
wonder finds itself still clothed upon and mated to a 
body, it will not be a far stretch of the imagination 
to allegorize the situation, and thus let the spirit 
body assert its reality and rightful dignity as it 
introduces itself to the astonished soul. 

" soul, thou regardest me strangely, and I seem 
to thee as one born out of the unknown. But let 
me tell thee, I am no alien thrust upon thee to clothe 
thy nakedness in this emergency. I am thine from 
the beginning, being of thy being, life of thy life, 
born of the old body and of thy very thoughts and 
aspirations. Thou hast considered too little, that 
in the divine wisdom thou art somewhat of a creator ; 
for thou hast helped to fashion me as thy companion, 
for thine own correspondence and reflection. No 
other encasement could now fulfill the far-seeing law, 
no other representative will represent thee. I am 
thine own incarnation. Unseen, I have always been 
with thee; I have sat down with thee by the fire- 
side, I have walked with thee by the way, in all your 
goings and comings, as you have lain down and risen 



152 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

up, I have been inseparable from you. I have grown 
with thy growth, and rejoiced in all thine aspira- 
tions and upward strivings, and fed upon thy good 
thoughts and good deeds ; and I have been enfeebled 
and made heavy and dull by the debasing of thine 
ideals and forgetfulness of the true life of the spirit. 
I have been your real body, fitting you for the real 
world in the long perspective of life. 

" But how little recognition I received from you. 
Yet you did not fail to acknowledge the earth body 
before me, though it was only a temporary adjustment, 
and in its corruptible nature was bound to break 
down and pass away. How strangely thou hast 
missed the truth lying so near you all these years. 

soul of mine, thou hast pictured the kingdom 
of God as coming with observation, and behold! it 
is wrought out within. So in truth, thou hast made 
thine own garments, thou hast selected the materials, 
and woven them in thine own loom, and put in thine 
own colors, and made the whole expressive of thine 
own real individuality. And yet, strange to say, 
so naturally and unconsciously hast thou done all 
this whilst thou hast been here and there busy about 
many things, that as you look upon me you are 
surprised and bewildered. Thou questionest whence 

1 came, and to what order I belong, and if you are 
really yourself. Thou must confess also that thou 
hast had low and unworthy thoughts of me. Thou 
hast given me little thought enough considering my 
vital importance to you, but when at times your at- 
tention has been drawn to me you have put me 
down as a weak and undesirable companion, as a 
pale, anaemic thing, if you have not doubted me 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 153 

altogether. Your flesh and blood life and your 
heavy material besettings have seemed to you the 
real thing, you had never seen any other correspond- 
ences in life and took no time to seriously consider 
them, and felt less desire for them. You must feel 
that you have had antiquated thoughts of me. You 
have had a survival in mind of a realm of shades, of 
a spirit world like unto ' the unsubstantial fabric of a 
dream, 5 and your conventional notion of me has been 
weird and repellent. 

" Now, my soul, you will excuse this plain dis- 
course, I have felt the compulsion of this introduc- 
tion, and confess a sense of reproach you have so 
long ignored me. Our relationship has now reached 
a new stage, it has come out from the hidden into 
the open, out of the realm of mystery and apoca- 
lyptic wonders into a new realm of reality and vital 
relations. And now, do not longer think of me as 
loss but as gain. I was made to be your helpmeet, 
to make life richer not poorer, stronger not weaker, 
higher not lower, to clothe you not in mortality, but 
in garments of light, in form radiant and luminous. 
I was ordained to be your correspondence to this in- 
finitely broader life of the spirit, to relate you to life 
in a thousand ways not possible in the weak and cor- 
ruptible body of earth, and to bring you to your 
highest realization and expression. Henceforth we 
shall live together. And with your cooperation and 
high purposes, we shall find that all has been fore- 
told by seer and prophet, all that the poet has 
dreamed of the land of pure* delight, all that apoca- 
lyptic has conjured up in its bold imaginings, will 
be more than fulfilled as together we shall enter into 



154 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

this heavenly life, and its glory of love and service 
and of progress onward and upward forever shall 
be revealed in us." 

EMANATIONS. NATURE'S HINTS AND SPIRIT 
TESTIMONY AS TO THE UPBUILDING OF THE 
SPIRIT WORLD 

We have dwelt upon the spirit body so long, be- 
cause its derivative and vital connection as a part of 
our organism is becoming more and more evident, 
and because the spirit body is a natural introduction 
to the spirit world and inevitably pre-supposes such 
a world. But is there any word further on the 
primal origin of the spirit world? Is there any cos- 
mology of the unseen world? Man has thought upon 
the world beneath his feet, and after long question- 
ing and investigation has traced back our system 
to the primeval, misty nebula, and found reasons for 
things as they are. And if the spirit world is 
measurably a counterpart of our physical world and 
besetment, equally valid reasons may be forthcoming 
in due time for the formation and conformation that 
world may present to spirit sense. We no longer 
look around for the supernatural in our surround- 
ings here, neither when we move into the larger and 
more refined quarters of the spirit need we look for 
disruption of law and order there. Of course, 
primarily and fundamentally spirit substance is de- 
rived from the original substance of all things — 
the ether; but it is nature's familiar way or the 
divine method to make use of intermediate forms for 
the propagation of other forms, as out of the soil, 
the water, and the air are produced countless other 
creations. 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 155 

Not to pass by simple things at hand, we might 
reflect on the manner in which the surface water and 
snow throw off their invisible molecules, and these 
ascending to their place of gravitational equilibrium 
form the beautiful cloud scenery and cloud platforms 
overhead. The volumes of steam particles issuing 
from a steam pipe on a cold morning, or the volumes 
of innumerable carbon particles ascending in bil- 
lowy waves from a smoking fire, teach us familiarly 
the disintegration of matter and its ascent in ele- 
mentally fine forms. Or we might well ask our- 
selves — How did our planet become ensphered with 
an atmosphere, a gaseous ocean forty miles or so 
in depth or height, and of varying purity from 
carboniferous times down? How does it happen that 
three quarters of our globe's surface are covered with 
a liquid ocean of somewhat differently combined 
gases, and the home of an endlessly varied life? 
Without previous knowledge and life-long familiarity, 
we should certainly consider such creations and 
adaptations of matter as too marvelous for credence. 
But their appeal to us now is of course perfectly 
natural, and their origins seem entirely natural. 
The dust motes of the atmosphere are an example 
of matter finely comminuted and ascending to a great 
height. And the physicist tells us how they serve 
a very important purpose in nature's economy in 
affording a center of condensation for clouds and 
mists and a nucleus for the formation of rain drops 
and snow. Water vapor in itself is said to be in- 
visible, like spirit substance. The air is charged 
with the pollen dust of countless flowers in the sum- 
mer season; carbonic acid gas is given off by the 



156 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

decomposition of organic matter everywhere and 
blends with the atmosphere unperceived by us. And 
if our spiritual environment is substantial and basic, 
as it must be to spirit sense, why should it not be- 
long to some refined form of the sublimation of matter 
which may be pre-figured for us in these various 
emanations? Nature's laboratory has furnished 
many surprises, and we cannot suppose them ex- 
hausted yet. 

We may remind ourselves again of that most 
revolutionary idea of modern science — the dissocia- 
tion of matter or radioactivity. Such fascinating 
expositions of the subject as Professor Duncan's 
" The New Knowledge," and Le Bon's writings give 
us a wonderful new insight into the romance and the 
evolutionary possibilities of matter. Le Bon men- 
tions six ways in which matter may be dissociated 
and resolved ^into effluves or invisible particles — by 
light, heat, electricity, chemical reactions, combus- 
tion, and spontaneous action. He adds that " sub- 
stances such as radium simply possess in a high 
degree a phenomenon which all matter possesses to 
some extent." 

Now this evaporation of matter by heat, radio- 
activity, etc., has established the truth of material 
emanations, and this prepares the way and relieves 
the strangeness of the phenomenon of other emana- 
tions, if such there be. And going on from these 
precursory hints, are we not justified in conceiving 
and indeed anticipating that in the divine economy 
there may be emanations, radiations of matter, if 
not of the inorganic then of the organic kingdom, 
of such a nature as to make for the upbuilding of 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 157 

a spiritual world? Organized and vitalized matter 
is of course of a higher grade than the crude and 
inorganic, and we might well expect where there 
is so much life and growth that a form of physical 
emanation or effluence would hold here in a higher 
degree. The organic life of the earth would then be 
the mills of God grinding slowly and exceedingly 
small, by which ultimately refined matter is provided 
for the constructive purposes of a greatly advanced 
stage of existence. Out of the soil comes the lily, 
and out of this earthly organic life on its spiritual 
side may come the refined and purified material for 
the new spiritual earth. And we would suppose that 
only the higher and finer forms of organic life could 
provide this refined material for the utilities of the 
spirit. 

We seem to have a worthy indicator here in this 
spiritual refinement in the perfume of the flower. 
The physicist thinks this may belong to the finest 
state of division in which matter is known to us. 
The flower will diffuse its fragrance for a long 
period, and fill a considerable space about it with 
its invisible emanations, but its lavish generosity is 
not sensible to weight, and it might elude search 
altogether were it not for the olfactory sense more 
sensitive than any balance. 

Now we would walk with caution here realizing 
the incompleteness of our knowledge, but we can- 
not fail to ponder these hints and indications which 
nature gives so freely, in her processes of things 
yet higher. It remains of course to make brief 
appeal to spirit testimony here. We may overlook 
the fact that the general truth of emanations was 



158 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

plainly taught and asserted through spirit testimony 
long before the thought of radium came to disturb 
the long-settled and complacent calculations of the 
scientist. It illustrates what a certain psychic 
writer has stated — that the psychical often pre- 
cedes the physical. " The vibrations of the body 
and mind both send out an emanation of matter, 
though it is not perceived by the mortal eye, and it 
enters into the composition of the spirit body. The 
higher and more refined the vibratory force and 
emanation, the more ethereal and clear the spirit 
body will be. . . . As nature replaces bit by bit 
her material in the form of a scar that in early life 
was formed from some wound on the body, so nature 
replaces in the spirit body the characteristics of 
the earth body, the contour of feature and even of 
expression." The soul or soul flame, it is said, 
permeates every nerve and tissue, and gathers to it- 
self those elements and atoms which enable it to 
build up the spiritual form which hereafter it will 
claim in grander worlds than this. 

This is a definite account from an accredited book 
of spirit teachings of the utilization of bodily and 
mental emanations in the upbuilding process of the 
spiritual body. The process might be termed a 
bodily radio-activity. And does this not suggest 
strongly some such co-ordinate process in connection 
with the magnetic substance of the spirit world? 
And in that case, something about the flower and the 
grass blade survives. And may not this be a hint or 
germ of immortality showing that even the lower life 
is not altogether " cast as rubbish to the void "? 

In the famous " Banner of Light " sittings of 



IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 159 

nearly fifty years ago, some exceedingly interesting 
answers were returned to all sorts of inquiries, sci- 
entific, theological and otherwise — answers that 
seem not unworthy of the characters who purported 
to serve as messengers. Concerning the nature of 
the spirit world, it was said : " The summer land 
or spirit world is composed of particles that once 
inhabited material forms. It comes up from the 
lower, growing into the higher, forever and forever 
leaving the lower and entering the higher. In this 
sense the summer land is constructed of atoms that 
w r ere once in crude forms." Again — " The spirit 
world proper has been derived from the spiritual ema- 
nations of this world, therefore it is like unto it only 
superior to it. Matter is ever ascending in the 
scale." . . . 

Again take the well-known " Outlines of Spirit 
Teachings" (M. A., Oxon.). "I have explained 
to you how the spirit body is formed — that it is the 
spiritualized or refined particles of our physical 
body. So that you will understand when I tell you 
that the spirit world is made up of refined or spirit- 
ualized particles given off by the earth. Every 
blade of grass, every tiny flower, shrub and tree, in- 
sect and animal, by their lives cause matter to be- 
come refined and spiritualized, which then ascends 
high above the clouds, and there spreads out in a 
broad belt and surrounds the earth like the rings of 
Saturn surround that planet." 

Let us round up this testimony with these sug- 
gestive sentences from a well-known psychic work — 
" When you are alone evenings we can talk almost 
out loud to you, for it is then when you come out of 



160 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

yourself as a white mist, although not shaped as a 
spirit." " It is always the spiritual self that we 
see. Of course it does separate and come out beside 
the shell body sometimes, but usually we see it 
through the shell." " And when we see a tree, it is 
always the magnetic part shining through and not 
the real earth bark. The sap is like fire. . . ." 
" Nothing rises unless it has a building principle." 

There seems nothing incredible about all this to 
present-day trend of thought; science has many 
greater wonders which we cheerfully accept. In a 
certain pamphlet series styled " The Fundamentals " 
assiduously scattered abroad to correct deviations 
from orthodoxy, a certain ecclesiastic refers to these 
spirit teachings as " bombastic nonsense," but it may 
be that the bombastic nonsense lies in another quar- 
ter. These teachings, many of them, be it noted, 
were given many years before the terms " Emana- 
tions," " Radiations," " Effluves," " Disengaged par- 
ticles," and " Dissociation," had found their way in 
such frequency into science. 

In conclusion, I have tried to treat this topic not 
in a dogmatic but in a suggestive spirit, to note the 
coincidence between pioneer scientific thinking to- 
day and spirit testimony, and to suggest the creative 
possibilities of a spirit world not in the old supernat- 
uralism, but already enfolded and operative in the 
noiseless looms of nature about us. And how very 
like is such an unobtrusive and hidden process to the 
divine method elsewhere. 



CHAPTER X 

A TESTIMONY TO SPIRIT COMMUNION 
AND COMMUNICATION 

THE NATURALNESS AND COMPULSION OF SPIRIT 

COMMUNION 

On the face of it and at the heart of it, nothing 
would seem to be more human, more natural, more 
compelling, than some sense of touch and communion 
with our friends on the other side, and especially 
when they have made the great transition and mind 
is bewildered and heart desolate. When can the soul 
need a token of nearness and a sense of the familiar 
presence as then when the body that so long mediated 
for the spirit within has been stricken down in ruin, 
and the light has gone out of the dear face and 
everything seems to be lost? Does it not seem a 
cruel fate that our dear ones should then be banished 
into the deeps of space, and should be kept there, 
when the friends left behind and the very friends who 
have gone before, both need the human touch that 
brings healing? And the very friends who have 
gone before, especially if called suddenly from earth, 
from all indications need the human healing touch 
more even perhaps than those left to linger on the 
shores of time. 

But we are far indeed from holding that God has 

so ordered the universe, and that he has ordained 

161 



162 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

any such irrevocable gulf of separation. And while 
averring this we do not of course imply there is no 
separation. 

There is the inevitable separation that belongs to 
two different natural orders of life, a lower and a 
higher order, it inheres in the nature and vibratory 
life of matter and spirit. But these two orders may 
and do interblend in vital relation, and intercommune 
and intercommunicate according to the faith of souls. 
Tradition, and convention, and spiritual unconcern 
may say there is no return, and may make no in- 
quiry. We may ascribe our sense of remoteness to 
the inscrutable decree of God, and excuse our lack of 
interest and whole-souled search by relegating the 
future life altogether to the domain of faith. But 
consider what a breaking up of the precious continu- 
ities of life, what a burden for bewildered souls, and 
what a deprivation for friends over there. 

But there is a great multitude, we hold, who be- 
long to this order of spirit communion, it wells up 
richly in poetry, it runs through all the past, it 
greets us unexpectedly in common life. No doubt 
the compulsion of personal experience often brings 
to the soul its heavenly vision. 

VARIOUS TESTIMONIES ON SPIRIT COMMUNION 

In a letter received from a revered professor of 
my college days, a man of wide experience and great 
scholarly attainments, he made this statement — " I 
would be the last person to deny the truth of spirit 
communion." 

From another, who had learned to look upon life 
with open vision, came to us this endorsement — 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 163 



U 



For all these years I have been sure of the near- 
ness of my dear sister who passed on nearly nine 
years ago." 

It was directly given to us that a certain widely 
known writer of public spirit, meeting a friend on the 
street, remarked in substance that people might think 
he was bearing his loss better than he should. But 
he could not feel otherwise than comforted, for he 
felt the presence of his son with him and he could 
not feel the lonesomeness as he would otherwise. 

When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote " The Other 
World," she had learned through experience and the 
discipline of sorrow the great truth of spirit com- 
munion. The loss of her dearly loved son Henry, 
who was drowned in 1857 while a student at Dart- 
mouth College, seems to have been ever with her, and 
she wrote at the time that she would have been glad 
to lie down and sleep away into a brighter scene. 

" It lies around us like a cloud, 

A world we do not see; 
Yet the sweet closing of an eye 

May bring us there to be. 

" Sweet hearts around us throb and beat, 
Sweet helping hands are stirred, 

And palpitates the veil between 

With breathings almost heard. . . . 

" Let death between us be as naught, 

A dried and vanished stream; 
Your joy be the reality 

Our suffering life the dream/' 

Not long since the bishop of London excited some 



164 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

little comment by renewing emphasis on the old 
teaching of the communion of saints. He is quoted 
from a sermon : " I would ask you to turn your eyes 
from this world to another, and look up from the 
heat and struggle of the stadium to those tiers after 
tiers of spectators, who look down upon the conflict 
which they once knew so well. There they are in 
their millions and tens of millions." The bishop then 
referred to a conversation he had had with the au- 
thorities of the Russian church, and nothing seemed 
to strike them more forcibly than the little connec- 
tion which the English church seemed to have with 
that multitude. They ended by saying: " Surely, 
bishop, yours is a very unloving doctrine. We love 
our dear ones in the other world, they are close 
to us." The bishop further said: "It would 
strengthen the wavering line more than one knows if 
we thought more of those noble souls who still think 
of us, still pray for us, and still love us. I would 
plead for a revival in the church of a belief in the 
great doctrine of the communion of saints." The 
editor added this singular comment — " The sermon 
is regarded by some as revolutionary." 

We must needs be brief in these testimonies, but it 
is plain our testimony would lack greatly in com- 
pleteness without some word from the other side as 
to the value and joy of spirit communion and the 
spirit message. Now it is precisely here, that there 
is such a strong and appealing body of evidence as to 
the importance of spirit communication, that it is 
difficult to make selections. Psychic literature 
abounds with emphatic declarations from the spirit 
side of the need and value of the open door for in- 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 165 

tercommunication between the two worlds. The 
children of light seem to realize tenfold more clearly 
than we in our ignorance and short-sightedness, the 
prime importance of the interpenetration of our life 
and world from the spirit, not only for mutual com- 
fort and joy, but also for the progressiveness of life 
here, for emancipation from error and the bringing 
in of truth and righteousness and love. Doubtless 
we shall never know till we awake into the understand- 
ing of the other side of life and the constant and 
powerful reaction of that world upon this, how much 
we owe in every sense, in growing religious light and 
knowledge, and in all progress and inventions to 
spirit impressions. Postulating the surrounding of 
such a spirit host, we cannot for a moment suppose 
that they can look down upon us simply as uncon- 
cerned and inactive spectators. 

In the spirit messages given to Prof. Corson of 
Cornell, there is such a rare body of witness on this 
point that I venture to make a brief reference. 

"I cannot express to you the joy it is to find a 
responsive spirit in the world of mortals. So long 
it mourned its dead as if there were nothing but dumb 
lips, and deaf ears, and sightless eyes, and vacant 
places, that the very thought of a message was doubt- 
ful and displeasing, and so we were put away like 
some rare treasure to wait until a day dawned when 
the door of our dark hiding place would be opened 
and we should once more be revealed." 

How convincingly and ilium in at in gly this puts the 
whole matter of our treatment of the dead, as we call 
them in our blind and faithless way. From another, 
who was a great and shining light in his day and min- 



166 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

istry : " Of this I am assured, the comfort, the com- 
panionship, the sweet solace of the communion be- 
tween dead and living are needed in every church, in 
every family, and in every aching heart." " I am 
sure that all religions fail in trying to give comfort 
to the bereaved heart." 

What minister, we add, has not felt the inadequacy 
of the common message on funeral occasions to bring 
healing to wounded souls, and to stay the tide of sor- 
row and bitterness toward God! And how little is 
ventured on the reality and definiteness of the life of 
the spirit, and its consciousness of, and interest in, 
and touch with this life and its loved ones ! 

Very interesting is the statement of Prof. Corson's 
wife, that when in the earth life the spirit message 
did not mean so much to her as to him, but from the 
spirit standpoint she saw the supreme importance of 
this interpenetrating power of spirit life. And from 
the daughter in the spirit, as she spoke of the mourn- 
ing friends and the sighs and sobs of those without 
vision, came this fine outburst — " O daddy dear, I 
think ignorance is the sin of the world. Why do 
the ministers keep so still about these truths? Are 
they cowardly, or do they believe men are insane 
when they talk as you do? And if they don't know, 
why don't they find out? " 

One great spirit speaks of his " almost unforgiv- 
able ignorance " of psychic matters while in the 
earth life, and adds — " Nothing is of such vital 
importance as to find out about the truth of spirit 
intercourse." 

We will have to bring this witness to a close here 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 167 

by a brief citation from a spirit son to a mother (the 
mother being well-known to us): "The great joy 
that comes to me when I write to you is greater than 
I can tell you on paper. Why, we are all as eager 
to open gates into earth as many mortals are to hear 
from this side. . . . We are trying in every con- 
ceivable place where we find a sensitive, and so sweet 
it is to know that our minds are not separated by 
death that it gives me higher and more noble purpose 
than I had on earth." 

We have referred to the witness of poetry. And 
at its best, poetry has been a great witness in its 
intuitions of a future life, and in a sensitive appre- 
hension of the nearness and reactions of the spirit 
world upon us. " Where there is no vision, the peo- 
ple perish." And of all men we expect the poet to 
be a man of vision, to be a prophet of the future, to 
be sensitive to spiritual values, and to have some clear 
cognizance and responsive touch with spirit realities 
about us. We need the witness of poetry to " the 
good land that is beyond Jordan," to the beyond in 
human life, that heaven is more than a fond dream 
and the angelic vision than a beautiful figment of the 
imagination. 

Longfellow was a spiritual seer. In the " Foot- 
steps of Angels," what a picture we have of the quiet 
evening hour, the hour of the spirit, when the hard 
outlines of the day are softened and the brooding 
twilight and the passivity of the soul invite our spirit 
friends to commune with us. The practice of the 
quiet hour and outreaching of the soul toward our 
loved ones will create a magnetic current of attrac- 



168 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

tion that will bring them to us and bring us to them, 
and will make the unseen world very near and home- 
like. 

" When the hours of day are numbered, 

And the voices of the night 
Wake the better soul that slumbered, 

To a holy calm delight; 

" Ere the evening lamps are lighted, 
And like phantoms grim and tall, 

Shadows from the fitful fire-light 
Dance upon the parlor wall; 

" Then the forms of the departed 

Enter at the open door, 
The beloved, the true hearted, 

Come to visit me once more. ,, 

In the chapter on the ghosts in " Hiawatha," the 
poet sings in pathetic fashion of the reality of our 
friends departed and the keeping alive of our inter- 
est in them. Does not this river of life tend to dry 
up more or less through a sense of unreality? Hia- 
watha heard his pallid visitors from the Islands of 
the Blessed " weeping in the silent midnight. 



95 



" And he said : ' O guests ! why is it 
That your hearts are so afflicted, 
That you sob so in the midnight ? ' 

And the answer came, — 

" ' We are ghosts of the departed, 
Souls of those who once were with you, 
Therefore have we come to try you, 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 169 

No one knows us, no one heeds us, 
We are but a burden to you, 
And we see that the departed 
Have no place among the living/ ' 

Perhaps no verse of Longfellow is better known 
as expressing his philosophy of death and the spirit 
world than the lines in " Resignation 



55 



" There is no death ! What seems so is transition ; 

This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 

Whose portal we call death. " 

And last, how explicitly the faith of the poet in 
spirit visitation is brought out in the solemn beauty 
of " Haunted Houses." 

" All houses wherein men have lived and died 
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors 

The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, 
With feet that make no sound upon the floors. 

1 We meet them at the doorway, on the stair, 
Along the passages they come and go, 

Impalpable impressions on the air, 

A sense of something njoving to and fro. 

' There are more guests at table than the hosts 

Invited; the illuminated hall 
Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts, 

As silent as the pictures on the wall. 

' The spirit world around this world of sense 
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere 

Wafts through these earthly mists and vapors dense 
A vital breath of more ethereal air." 






170 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

And it does one good to note the emphasis on spirit 
return in these clear-seeing verses from the Bryant 
selection of poems: 

" O hearts that never cease to yearn ! 

O brimming tears that ne'er are dried ! 
The dead, though they depart, return 

As though they had not died. 

" The living are the only dead, 

The dead live, nevermore to die; 
And often, when we mourn them fled, 

They never were so nigh." 

And with what musical and passionate conviction 
does Edwin Arnold in " She and He," and " After 
Death in Arabia," involve the essential truths of 
spirit philosophy : — 

" Who wiil believe that he heard her say, 
With the soft, rich voice, in the dear old way, — 

The utmost wonder is this — I hear 
And see you, and love you, and kiss you, Dear; 

' * I can speak, now you listen with soul alone; 
If your soul could see, it would all be shown. 

What a strange, delicious amazement is death 
To be without body and breathe without breath. 

" ' I should laugh for joy if you did not cry: 
Oh, listen! Love lasts, love never will die. 

" ' I am only your angel who was your bride, 

And I know, that though dead, I have never died ! ' " 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 171 

Abdallah seems to have been present at his own 
funeral, which may seem a thing strange and bizarre 
to the stranger, but which spirit testimony has often 
confirmed. 

" He who died at Azan sends 
This to comfort all his friends: 

" Faithful friends ! It lies, I know, 
Pale and white and cold as snow. 
And ye say, ' Abdallah's dead ! ' 
Weeping at his feet and head, 
I can see your falling tears, 
I can hear your sighs and prayers; 
Yet I smile and whisper this, — 
' I am not the thing you kiss, 
Cease your tears, and let it lie, 
It was mine, it is not 1/ " 

And how quiet and attentive and well-attuned 
should that soul be that seeks to realize as a living 
experience this spiritual acquaintance and commun- 
ion with friends on the other side. Here manifestly 
is no place for the scientific sceptic or the short- 
sighted one who has no vision beyond the barriers of 
sense and dogma. 

" How pure at heart and sound in head, 
With what divine affections bold, 
Should be the man whose thought would hold 
An hour's communion with the dead. 

" In vain shalt thou or any call 
The spirits from their golden day, 
Except like them thou too canst say, 
My spirit is at peace with all. 



172 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" But when the heart is full of din, 
And doubt beside the portal waits, 
They can but listen at the gates 
And hear the household jar within.' ' 

The spiritual philosophy of Tennyson is seen in 
these lines : — 

" The ghost in man, the ghost that once was man 

But cannot wholly free itself from man, 

Are calling to each other through a dawn 

Stranger than earth has ever seen, the veil 

Is rending, and the voices of the day 

Are heard across the voices of the dark. 

No sudden heaven, no sudden hell for man, 

But through the will of One who knows and rules, 

JEonian evolution, swift or slow, 

Through all the spheres — an ever-opening height, 

An ever-lessening earth. " 

And the*. poet Rogers gives this home-like pic- 
ture : — 

" Oft may the spirits of the dead descend 
To watch the silent slumbers of a friend; 
To hover round his evening-walk unseen, 
And hold sweet converse on the dusky green; 
To hail the spot where first their friendship grew, 
And heaven and nature opened to their view. . . . 
There may these gentle guests delight to dwell, 
And bless the scene they loved in life so well. ,, 

"Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is 
named. " Ephesians 3: 15. 

The fundamental need of the sorrowing heart for 
this spiritual knowledge and communion is finely in- 
timated in these lines from John Pierpont : 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 173 

" I cannot make him dead ! 

His fair sunshiny head 
Is ever bounding round my study chair; 

Yet when my eyes, now dim 

With tears, I turn to him, 
The vision vanishes — he is not there. 

" I walk my parlor floor, 

And through the open door 
I hear a footfall on the chamber stair; 

I'm stepping toward the hall 

To give the boy a call, 
And then bethink me — he is not there." 

And by way of answer to this sorrowing cry, let 
us conclude this witness of song with a message of 
comfort purporting to have been given by a spirit 
teacher to mothers who have lost children. It would 
be natural to suppose that the spirit teacher spoke 
out of the deeps of her own earthly experience. 

" Oh, could the sunshine of the heart 
Dispel the blinding tears that start, 
And all your doubts and fears depart, — 

Those forms, concealed 
Like blossoms 'neath the shades of night, 
Before your spirits' quickening sight 

Would stand revealed. 

" O gentle mothers of the earth, 

Who gave these precious spirits birth, 

Your homes have lost their sounds of mirth 

And childish glee; 
But not in Death's embrace they sleep — 
Nay, gentle mothers, cease to weep — 

They dwell with me. . . . 



174 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 



" O ye, who tears of anguish shed 

Above some cradle bed 

Where once reposed a precious head — 

Be reconciled. 
For yet your longing eyes shall see 
In heaven's broad sunshine, glad and free, 

Your spirit child. 

" They are all there — they are all there — 
The young, the beautiful, the fair; 
They know no want, they feel no care, 

They are not dead; 
But quickened in their spirits' powers, 
Life crowns with her immortal flowers 

Each shining head. ,, . . . 

" Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no physician 
there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of 
my people recovered? " 

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION AND TELEPATHY 

" And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth 
and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of 
God ascending and descending on it." Gen. 28:12. 

Spirit communion leads most naturally to spirit 
communication. They are vitally correlated, the 
one is the inward expression and experience and the 
other the outward symbol of the greatest truth of the 
soul. We may think of communion as one form 
and the deepest form of communication, but it 
reaches its social perfection and satisfaction only 
through the communication and interchange of our 
thoughts. 

The great contention of the higher spiritualism 
has been the possibility of communication with our 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 175 

spirit friends in a surrounding spirit world. This 
great contention has been exploited and prostituted 
on a large scale by unprincipled men and women for 
mercenary purposes. But medicine in its charlatan- 
ism and Christianity itself in its corruptions and 
priestly assumptions and other great social truths 
have gone the same way, and given constant illustra- 
tion that the highest impulses are capable of the 
worst perversion and that " the love of money is the 
root of all evil." " If our inquiry first lead us 
through a jungle of fraud and folly, need that alarm 
us? As well might Columbus have yielded to the 
sailors' panic when he was entangled in the Sara- 
gossa Sea." [" Proofs of Life after Death."] 

But despite all perversion, this most significant 
truth of communication with an unseen world of 
spirit has kept itself before the world, not merely in 
more recent times but in classical and biblical times 
and all time, and has in these latter days compelled 
scientific attention. The amount of evidential ma- 
terial for spirit survival and manifestation that has 
accumulated since 1882 in the S. P. R. Journals, 
English and American, and the highly critical char- 
acter of the investigations and the distinguished 
names associated therewith, can only be appreciated 
by one who has given them at least some good degree 
of consideration and study. It is true here as else- 
where, that the truth comes not by hearsay or the 
ipse dixit of one who echoes our own pre-judgments, 
but evidently the confirmatory way is to squarely 
face the question and think and experience our way 
through. 

We add that already the great truth of intercom- 



176 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

munion and intercommunication with the spirit world 
has appreciably affected the orthodox conception of 
the future life, and we cannot doubt that ere long 
it will incorporate itself into the great stream of 
Christian thought like other contributory concep- 
tions of the past, and notably the evolutionary phi- 
losophy and literary criticism. We are not apt to 
think of a duty here. But do we stop to think about 
this great matter of the healing of souls anguished by 
the disruptions of death? Mr. Stead writes in the 
preface to " Letters from Julia " : " It is not only 
possible but lawful, and not only lawful but an ab- 
solute duty on the part of mortals to renew and 
keep up a loving intercourse with the loved ones who 
have gone before." 

EXTENDED TELEPATHY AND ITS ASSUMPTIONS 

But at this point the way is obscured or even 
blocked for some minds by an assumption much put 
forward of late years — the telepathic assumption. 
And first of all, it is most helpful to squarely meet 
this assumption. It is helpful to consider the utmost 
that has been set forth or conjectured in its behalf, 
and the easy and all-inclusive extension that perforce 
must be given to it, and then reflect where our theory 
has carried us and what a psychological complication 
we have. The sense of incongruity and dispropor- 
tion is often a saving element, when an idea has been 
worked beyond all legitimate bounds. Certain re- 
stricted mental phenomena are made to go such a 
long way, and the theory is made to apply to such 
diverse psychic manifestations and problems in such 
an easy and off-hand manner, that one experiences 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 177 

certainly a shock of surprise. The term " telep- 
athy," Dr. Hyslop asserts, is simply descriptive and 
in no wise explanatory, and all that we know about 
is, that there are a number of coincidences between 

the thoughts of A and B not due to chance. 

The psychic reader is familiar with illustrative cases 
where words or commands have been conveyed to some 
sensitive recipient in a passive condition in a manner 
outside the ordinary channels of communication. 
The mode of action of this thought transference is 
not precisely determined. But the process of theo- 
retical evolution by which this interesting truth has 
grown out of its sphere into surprising and unwieldy 
proportions, is well known. 

We very soon discover that mental and spiritual 
impressions are rigidly confined as to origin to the 
minds of the living, and then follows the labored at- 
tempt to accommodate the telepathic idea to psychic 
phenomena of diverse and most complicated type. 
But it is with a wrench and a jar and a sense of 
surprise to the reader. And the wrench is so great, 
and so many unmanageable details are quietly ig- 
nored in the final hasty application, that conviction 
hesitates. All historic psychic phenonema from the 
attendant daimon of Socrates, and the angel voices 
of Joan, and necessarily the abounding spirit phe- 
nomena of the Bible, all automatic speaking and 
writing, and all physical manifestations whatever 
whether accredited by Sir William Crookes, Prof. 
Lombroso, or a dozen distinguished men of science, 
must all be made by hook or by crook to lose their 
spiritual reality and all objective semblance under 
the hallucinatory touch of magic telepathy. Every- 



178 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

thing is hallucination so to speak except the bare 
earth beneath our feet. 

A combination is made of telepathy — this name 
for certain mental coincidences — and the subcon- 
scious mental region, and both are given unlimited 
powers, and strange things happen. One part of 
ourselves is made to telepath to another part, and 
even to speak in an audible voice of warning, or to 
conjure up a vision. And this helps to explain away 
the supposed supernatural and spirit interposition, 
and to locate ministering spirits and divine provi- 
dences within ourselves. It seems possible to develop 
a fatal facility for explaining away, especially in the 
interest of deep-seated scepticism of spirit and even 
in the interest of respectability. We may enjoy be- 
ing on the highly respectable side more than we think. 
An able critic writes — " It is exceedingly respectable 
to be a doubter about spirits." 

A case is given of a guest at a Back Bay Hotel in 
Boston, who was hurrying along a corridor to catch 
an elevator, when unexpectedly the form of a man 
appeared at the entrance of the elevator. She 
stopped short, when the form disappeared, and she 
found though the door in the shaft was open, the car 
was at the bottom of the shaft, into which she would 
certainly have fallen but for the spirit figure. 

Those of us who see no reason for doubting the 
existence of a spirit world, and the interest, and 
guardianship when possible, of spirit friends, see no 
reason also for doubting this to be a case of spirit 
interposition, and the more so from the fact that it 
fits into a multitude of similar accredited providences, 
some of which are afterwards authenticated in spirit 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 179 

communication. (See "Can Telepathy Explain?" 
Page 124.) What saith the Scriptures? " Are they 
not all ministering spirits? " Were the angel voices 
to Joan simply Joan talking to herself? It re- 
quires a good deal of credulousness and cynical mini- 
mizing to believe that, considering her marvelous ca- 
reer. And was Socrates with his wonderful acute- 
ness under a great self-delusion in testifying to his 
" familiar oracle " and its guidance? " The custom- 
ary sign would surely have opposed me had I been 
going to evil and not to good." (Page 132, Jow- 
ett's " Plato.") Socrates declared before his judges 
that from his childhood he was moved by a certain 
spiritual influence or guardian spirit who diverted 
him from dangerous courses ; and Xenophon refers 
to the warnings of Socrates' Genius and his accusers 
charged him with a familiar spirit. 

But so far, this is a small part of telepathic elas- 
ticity. It is assumed that the subconscious part of 
us unconsciously reveals or is made to reveal its inti- 
mate life history — an assumption first of all not in 
accord with the supposed seclusion and sanctity of 
our inner being. In other words the subliminal of 

B rummages among the endless stores of A 's 

memory and with amazing selective intelligence 
filches the material for constructing a case of per- 
sonal identity, and then brings this to surface view 
unconsciously and automatically in order to convince 

A that he is conversing with a deceased friend. 

It might be well to inquire here what is the end in 
view, what in the world is this strangely independent, 
all-prying, all-cunning subliminal aiming at? And 
why should Divine Wisdom first of all have endowed 



180 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

this substratum of our being with such fiendish pow- 
ers of deceit, and of mockery of the tenderest and 
holiest hopes of humanity ? It is a long question, but 
it seems pertinent. 

But telepathy can easily stretch farther than this. 
In clairvoyant and clairaudient phenomena, even 
such as at once strikingly suggest spirit action and 
spirit telepathy, and spirit vision of the recipient, the 
subconscious part of some unknown person, or of 
some person entirely unconscious of the process, or 
seemingly literally unconscious, telepaths to the sub- 
consciousness of the second person which telepaths 
or impresses the upper consciousness in visions and 
voices, and the trick is done. This has the beautiful 
effect of shutting out all spirit agency, or even the 
acknowledgment that man possesses independent 
spirit powers. 

A case is* cited by Mr. Bruce of a Mrs. Bettany 
walking in a country lane, who has a vision of her 
mother lying prostrate on the floor of the white room 

of the house. Mrs. B 's real surroundings 

seemed to pale and die out, but as the mental vision 
faded, her actual surroundings came back dimly and 
at last clearly. It is to be noted the vision was true 
to minute details, and was the means of saving the 
mother's life. To the unbiassed psychic student, the 
case has every appearance of spirit intervention and 
providential mental impression; and what we might 
reasonably expect at times under favoring conditions 
if we actually have surrounding spirit friends with 
some power of access to us. But the telepathist is 
forced to work out the case by devious ways of tele- 
pathic tunneling, in a manner unbelievable to the 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 181 

practical common sense and devoid of scientific cre- 
dentials. It illustrates the labor and complexity a 
theory sometimes involves when it is forced to substi- 
tute through bias for a naturally simple and explana- 
tory theory. 

In this same category, a more devious case still is 
where the subconsciousness of some member of a fam- 
ily group, perceiving an event as a death entirely un- 
suspected by the other members or by this member 
himself, finds the way somehow closed to the every- 
day consciousness, but artfully escapes restraint by 
telepathing to the subconsciousness of a stranger in 
the vicinity, which manages to report to the upper 
consciousness, in audible voice it may be, and thus 
the communication at last leaks out through this 
amazing subterranean process. We must suppose 
it a relief to some people to try to hold this tortuous 
notion, but they should certainly have a care in 
ascribing credulity to the spiritualist even in his wild- 
est vagaries. 

TELEPATHIC VS. SPIRITISTIC CREDULITY 

Apropos of credulity, in the Hibbert Journal (Oct., 
1913) the writer of " The Significance of Non-evi- 
dential Material in Psychic Research " expresses 
himself in these words concerning a psychic of high 
character : " Did she in a state of dissociation 
subconsciously fabricate the w r hole thing? Or was 
she merely an instrument, is there really a life after 
death, and did the personalities who assumed to com- 
municate, personalities thoughtful and of high re- 
solve, use her hand to convey their messages to the 
world? For myself I cannot but feel that it is those 



182 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

who can adopt the former hypothesis not the latter, 
who are the uncritical and the credulous people." 

H. Addington Bruce who works out his anti- 
spiritistic theory in the devious method noted remarks 
in one place — "It must be acknowledged however 
that the telepathic connection is sometimes extremely 
difficult to trace." No one can fail to agree with 
this admission. Mr. Bruce thinks that the scientist 
is doomed to perpetual unbelief in telepathy because 
he insists on dealing with it as he would with chemi- 
cals ; so Mr. B is doomed to the same state of 

mind as to spirit interposition in any form because of 
the elastic and practically omniscient assumption to 
which he is committed. A phenomenon however com- 
plicated or unwilling or remote, has no choice in Mr. 

B 's hands but to fit into its procrustean bed 

though it be distorted out of all recognition in the 
process. Many are familiar with the marvels con- 
nected with the mediumship of D. D. Home, and which 
are set forth so cautiously and convincingly by Sir 
William Crookes, and the objective phenomena pre- 
sented in " After Death — What? " by Prof. Cesare 
Lombroso and vouched for by other eminent scientists. 
And the psychic student we assume is acquainted with 
the famous detailed accounts of poltergeist and other 
physical phenomena in the works of Robert Hare, 
M.D., and Robert Dale Owen and in the psychic jour- 
nals, as well as with the spurious exploitations in 
this field as given by Mr. Carrington. But when 
the telepathist can cooly dismiss in a few words all 
such manifestations and much more however well au- 
thenticated, and can pronounce their disappearance 
in a mirage of telepathic hallucination, the theory 



SPIRIT COMMUNION 183 

has certainly reached its limit. If consistent he 
should call himself henceforth agnostic and be sure 
of nothing. 

Shakespeare considered there are more things in 
heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philoso- 
phy ; but that was before certain psychic researchers 
found out that we had a subliminal that could tap 
all knowledge and draw at will from a cosmic con- 
sciousness. Shakespeare introduced the ghost, some- 
what freely implying spirit return, and that is the 
biblical and age-long interpretation, but the telepa- 
thist would have us think that the spirit world is not 
at all necessary and would exclude all reaction and 
visitants from such a world. 

WHY NOT GO ON AND EXPLAIN AWAY ALL 
THINGS AS FORMS OF SOCIAL TELEPATHIC 
SUGGESTION? 

Now it seems that having gone so far, it is fitting 
to take one more step and inquire — Why not ex- 
plain away all things as forms of collective tele- 
pathic hallucination? Why not write telepathy over 
all things? First we fool ourselves and then we fool 
others, and consistently we might go on and fool our- 
selves and others to the limit. 

What is the idea of God but a social telepathic 
suggestion, and this outer world of phenomena but 
the unsubstantial fabric of a dream? Can we fur- 
nish absolute demonstration of the existence of God 
and of the concrete reality of our surroundings? 
Then why babble of these things so seriously? Why 
not get rid entirely of this superstitious notion of 
spirit (for as long as God is spirit there is danger 



184 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

that we are spirits by kinship), by asserting there is 
no foundation to existence but telepathy? By fool- 
ing the mind and hallucinating the various senses 
you can neatly explain away everything. We are 
dream creatures in a dream world. Sometimes we 
think of ourselves as awake and sometimes as asleep, 
but it is all the same; people and things are only a 
phantasmagoria, a succession of telepathic images 
which we mistake for reality. Telepathy attenuates 
all things into nothingness, all religion, all theology 
and philosophy, all notions about a future life. 
Everything runs into telepathy at last as the rivers 
run into the sea. And now we may write " finis " to 
extended telepathy, for it isn't necessary to extend 
it any farther. 



CHAPTER XI 

TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE FROM 
THE SPIRITISTIC THEORY 

But lest we accept this conclusion too hastily, we 
might note a few things more that do not tend to this 
conviction. In the first place, let us note that in 
this gradual and amazing telepathic extension from 
simple mental coincidences to the labored inclusion 
of all psychic manifestations, even those highly au- 
thenticated and of most refractory type, we have all 
the marks of a subterfuge to meet an anti-spiritistic 
emergency. It is so evidently convenient as a refuge 
for the spirit sceptic, that one is led to suspect more 
and more, especially in reading the writings of Mr. 
Podmore, that it does not belong so much to the 
natural order as to the artificial order in the interest 
of controversial necessity. Mr. Podmore' s last book, 
" The Naturalization of the Supernatural," with its 
palpably outworn distinction between natural and 
supernatural, would be far more truthfully desig- 
nated — " The Artificialization of the Natural." 
For that is precisely what the book does ; it takes 
spiritual phenomena which belong to the realm of 
law and order and deprives them of all vitality and 
prophecy by a process of artificial and materialistic 
mind imposition. Mr. Podmore has well been termed 

" a professional sceptic." The question was once 

185 



186 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

put to him, it is claimed, what he would regard as 
evidence of the spiritistic theory, and the reply was 
he did not know. Dr. Hyslop writes (Am. Jour. S. 
P. R., Vol. Ill, page 152) : " Many accept its pos- 
sibility (telepathy) in order to avoid any sympathy 
with the evidence of spirits, but this is a subterfuge 
to gain respectability. In so far as the data, that 
is, facts and arguments, are concerned, the proof of 
spiritism is far larger in quantity and quality than 
that for telepathy." " It is only the superstition 
that anything is scientific but spirits that keeps up 
this stretching of telepathy." 

There is a grave danger in running so easily to 
this subterfuge of extended telepathy not fully 
realized. We may, as already hinted, escape spir- 
its altogether — not to admit any spirit interposi- 
tion whatever, is dangerously equivalent to not ad- 
mitting the existence of any spirit world whatever. 
For if there be a surrounding spirit world, it is in- 
conceivable but that there should be some manifesta- 
tion of that fact in some form, or that world in the 
minds of many thinking people at least becomes more 
and more coldly remote and supposititious. The uni- 
verse is too closely and compactly knit together to 
admit of any such absolute disjointing. The Bible 
abounds in evidences direct and implied of spirit 
agency and appearances, and only the conventional 
veil of supernaturalism conceals this truth from the 
common reader. Let one suspend his conventional 
impressions of the angel stories and sacred legends 
of the Bible, so rich in their spiritual appeal, as iso- 
lated and supernatural events, and devote to them a 
little first-hand and unbiassed study with the help of 



TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 187 

such a book as " A Careful Comparison of Biblical 
and Modern Spiritualism " or " Primitive Christian- 
ity and Modern Spiritualism " ; and he will surely 
gain new light on spiritualism in the Bible. 

And to utterly ignore or deny spirit presence or 
agency dangerously approximates a denial of re- 
ligious origins, and of spirit survival. Such a telep- 
athist as Mr. Bruce may still cling to the hope of 
survival, but, as Dr. Hyslop has observed, on what 
evidence no one knows. 

WHAT SHALL WE THINK OF A SUBCONSCIOUS 
INTELLIGENCE CAPABLE OF SUCH FIENDISH 
DECEPTION? 

To this we add that in the exercise of sober 
thought and common sense, it is exceedingly difficult 
for us to believe that any part of our nature is pos- 
sessed of any such extraordinary powers of eliciting 
information and such diabolical ingenuity in cover- 
ing up its tracks. Why should it cover up its tracks 
anyway? What game is it playing? What is the 
object of all this spiritistic assumption and lying? 
Are we in essential conflict with ourselves, and has 
the goodness of God set our members at war with 
one another? Certainly Christ's words would seem 
to apply here : " Every kingdom divided against it- 
self is brought to desolation, and every city or house 
divided against itself shall not stand." We think 
we behold a Promised Land and all the guide books 
point to it, and the next thing we discover it is all a 
mirage, a vision conjured up for our delight and 
then deeper despair by some submerged and diabol- 
ically deceptive part of our personality. 



188 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

What shall we think of such a nature? What 
shall we think of a nature, though it be our human 
nature, that in the most subtle and tortuous of ways 
professes to bring us into communion with our loved 
ones in the spirit, and assumes continually and most 
earnestly and solemnly that such are the conditions, 
and supports this assertion with identifying detail 
and sacred memories to satisfy the most exacting? 
What shall we think of a nature that can rouse our 
highest hopes, and build up a heavenly vision of life 
onward and upward such as no apocalyptic ever set 
forth, and then at length turn upon us in mockery 
and outrage all that is highest and holiest in us? 
And those of us who have come into this great and 
satisfying experience of spirit communion, and with 
a personal atmosphere at peculiar times which the 
earth life did not afford, are we to deny our own 
consciousness "and intelligence here and be persuaded 
by the spirit sceptic that this is all illusion? And is 
it a part of all this foolery and self-delusion that 
man has dared to assert and repeat all these cen- 
turies — " So God created man in his own image, in 
the image of God created he them " ? And if man is 
in a conspiracy to deceive himself, what can we be- 
lieve anyway? And what is there about us worth 
immortalizing? Certainly not the subliminal part, 
as Hudson proposed and Bruce assumes after him. 

I cannot forbear quoting again here from Dr. Hys- 
lop (Am. Jr. S. P. R., Vol. 2, Page 340), and I do 
it with full conviction of the critical authority that 
pertains to such first-hand experimental work as this 
investigator has carried on for many years. " This 
intelligence knows what facts to select to palm off as 



TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 189 

memories of deceased persons, and yet with all this in- 
telligence it either does not know their real source 
or it is lying about where it gets them. Its assumed 
ignorance of the source is incompatible with its nec- 
essary knowledge about their pertinence, and we can- 
not but attribute to it a monumental amount of lying 
about their origin. There can be no doubt that this 
assumed telepathic process asserts that the facts 
come from spirits, and its intelligence in selecting 
the right facts to deceive us must naturally be re- 
garded as fiendish and devilish." And Dr. H 

adds that " the appalling character of the devilish- 
ness involved in any other theory might lead us at 
least to tolerate that view [the spiritistic] as one to 
think about as an escape from a terrible indictment 
of nature." 

And in conclusion it is impossible to believe that 
God our Father who enjoins His children to put 
away guile, should so arrange the spirit world and 
our relations thereto, and should so fearfully and de- 
ceptively construct our inner being as to lead us into 
endless delusion and mocking promises and blasted 
hopes. If such is the cosmical arrangement, it looks 
like the work of some cynical, pessimistic, and mock- 
ing Mephistopheles and not of God our Father as 
we have learned Him elsewhere. But God is not 
mocked, neither does He mock His children. In this 
great quest for a spiritual foundation, which God 
Himself has inspired in the minds and hearts of 
His children, it is impossible to believe that He 
has so beset the way with snares and pitfalls that 
we are forever stumbling and never reaching the 
goal. 



190 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

IS THE SUBCONSCIOUS ACTIVITY OF OUR NATURE 
AN INDEPENDENT EGO WITH NO LIMITATIONS? 

We have referred to extended telepathy as a sub- 
terfuge, and of the fiendish deception of telepathic 
subconsciousness. And our third point must be this 
— Is the subconscious activity of our nature an in- 
dependent ego? Does it have no limitations? Can 
it roam up and down the earth, so to speak, in inde- 
pendent fashion, extracting information from a world 
consciousness (whatever that may be), and so be able 
to simulate all dead people and to fool forever the 
deepest searchings and the tenderest hopes of human- 
ity ? Let him believe this who can, but whether his 
bias be scientific, dogmatic, materialistic, or Phara- 
saic, it is a bias we need not envy. 

But the question seems to force itself here. We 
have read such wonderful accounts of subconscious 
ways and pranks from telepathic romancers, that we 
somehow get to thinking of some entity, a queer self 
who is a near neighbor and yet a stranger, and who 
does most unaccountable things and unless we look 
out for him will utterly deceive us. How shall we 
conceive of this new phase of our nature? Do we 
have here an independent ego with unlimited credit? 

Now the subconsciousness is defined as a sort of 
reservoir in which is stored up the things learned 
through education and experience and received 
through the normal channels of sense, and also as 
possessing a limited dynamic power that economizes 
and enlarges the operations of the upper consciousness 
as in the automatic action of piano playing. This is 
evidently and undoubtedly the great function of this 
phase of our nature — to serve as a storehouse of ex- 



TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 191 

perience and character and to strengthen and aug- 
ment our active life by automatic habits. The other 
extraordinary and unheard-of powers which have 
been delegated to it of late years have been clearly 
in the interest of anti-spiritistic bias. Dr. Hyslop 
points out that in the whole history of the subcon- 
scious from " unconscious cerebration " down, it has 
been associated with strict limitations. He also 
points out the great importance of clear thinking and 
definition in the matter of the subconscious and of 
secondary and multiple personality so called. And 
he criticises Mr. Bruce in these words : " The author 
shows an entire misunderstanding of the whole prob- 
lem of the ego and the personality." 

It is insisted first of all that the ego is always a 
unity, the totality of being, the subject of all con- 
sciousness, the entire being of man in short. But 
the easy telepathic treatment of this matter leads one 
to think that his soul is not his own, and that so to 
speak we may have seven distinct individual devils 
wrapped up within us somewhere after the manner of 
Mary Magdalene. Now it is strongly insisted that 
the subconscious is not the ego, nor a division of the 
ego, nor an individual entity by itself, but is a name 
only for certain functional activities of the ego. It 
helps to clear the air to perceive clearly what we are 
talking about. The ego may function on a high 
plane, it may descend to a low plane ; this is common 
experience, and in case of certain dissociations it 
may function quite differently as A., B. and C. But 
the ego is always intact, the sum of all functions, the 
soul is one's own. And though functioning on a 
low plane in dissociation and disordered and unbal- 



192 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

anced in various ways, when the healing comes the 
ego rights itself and the submerged normal function- 
ing is restored. 

But how does the telepathist treat the ego and the 
subconscious functioning? We get the impression 
of split-up egos and we wonder if we ought not to 
say — " My name is legion, for we are many." And 
to the self, functioning subconsciously, is allotted 
such a degree of independence and domain as to war- 
rant another scripture — " Ye shall be as gods." 
This functioning has been given quite an independent 
existence of its own, it has been given irresponsible 
freedom to go and come " whithersoever the governor 
(that is the telepathist) listeth," and however great 
the psj^chic task set before it, it must be able to give 
some account of it. The result is, we have come to 
hold a vague notion that this unnatural perversion of 
subconscious ^functions is another ego, and to this 
alter ego we are linked partly as to an automatic 
servant and partly as Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde with 
the latter's powers greatly extended. And this in- 
dependent functionary will magically explain away 
all spirits and thus relieve science and dogmatism 
of this disturbing superstition, and Hudson assumes 
that as "the subjective self" it may be independent 
enough to survive bodily death. But it is a question 
whether we should be grateful to Mr. Hudson for this 
concession. 

Now for all this we believe as the most eminent 
phychic researchers hold, there is no evidence what- 
ever. And we have in mind those especially who have 
not merely theorized in their study chair, but have 
devoted long years to psychic demonstration and 



TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 193 

have won their way through all obstacles and prepos- 
sessions at last to a firm faith in spirit and spirit 
return. While the subliminal holds the treasures of 
memory and experience, and in its automatic and in- 
spirational reactions economizes effort and brings to 
our help the accumulations of the past, it is most 
strongly affirmed that it is no such independent entity 
as to do the business of the telepathist and to select 
and send whatsoever message it will. In telepathy, 
says Dr. Hyslop, " absolutely all the evidence is for 
the influence of the normal and supraliminal con- 
sciousness on the percipient." Let telepathy have its 
reasonable due, has been the attitude of such investi- 
gators as Hodgson, Hyslop, Lodge, Myers and 
others, but it is maintained " there is not a single 
case among the many thousands in which we have 
any evidence that the message was subliminally sent." 
Even if prolonged experiments necessitate some ex- 
ception to this statement and we postulate sporadic 
cases of subconscious or unconscious telepathy under 
peculiar circumstances of stress and emotion, it 
would by no means justify such enormous powers and 
universal psychic application as the anti-spiritistic 
theorizer requires for his case. It is a truism that a 
general working rule at times admits of an exception, 
such is the flexibility of all things. And when it 
comes to the highly selective and complex and tran- 
scendent nature of trance communication, we must 
absolutely excuse ourselves from following a subter- 
fuge. We must be excused from a subterfuge that 
would nullify our rational and straightforward con- 
clusions, that would seal the gates of the spirit 
world with a bias, and would make a certain useful 



191 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

and limited functioning of the ego act the parts of 
the serpent and the tree of knowledge and an inde- 
pendent and irresponsible alter ego besides. 

A FEW TESTIMONIES ON THE TELEPATHIC 
ASSUMPTION 

Take the testimony of an amateur investigator 
(Hibbert Jour., Oct., 1913.) 

" Just how strong the evidence for the reality of 
spirit return and for the genuineness of communica- 
tion from those we call dead, only those who have 
some familiarity with the hundreds of pages of de- 
tailed accounts which have accumulated giving identi- 
ficatory data, are in position to judge." Fabrica- 
tion the writer considers out of the question, and then 
adds : " To ascribe these communications to sub- 
conscious personalities involves an extension of mul- 
tiple personality to meet this form of argument simi- 
lar to the extension of telepathy to explain the refer- 
ence to detailed events. There comes a time at last 
when such elaborate straining to avoid an undesired 
conclusion must give way." 

Dr. Hodgson in reply to a friend who had inquired 
if there were any theories alternative to the spirit- 
istic, wrote: " Various fool hypotheses may be put 
forward which by the perfectly rational mind might 
be regarded as conceivable but not credible. That 
is, they appear so highly improbable that they do not 
affect appreciably the practical certainty of the 
spirit theory, but they prevent its mathematical cer- 
tainty." And Dr. Hodgson's opinion, won over as 
he was from a position of scepticism, and noted for 
the keenness of his pioneer research and serving so 



TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 195 

many years as S. P. R. secretary, is entitled to great 
weight. 

He also put on record this emphatic word — 
" Having tried the hypothesis of telepathy from the 
living for several years, I have no hesitation in affirm- 
ing with the utmost assurance that the spiritistic 
hypothesis is justified by its fruits while the other 
hypothesis is not." 

And the eminent psychic authority, Dr. Hyslop, in 
a critique of Mr. Bruce remarks (Amer. Jr. S. P. R., 
Vol. 2) : " His perfectly enormous telepathy, with 
apparently infinite powers of selection, with perfect 
command of all human consciousness for simulating 
the existence of dead people, cannot read the mind 
and memory well enough to make money out of the 
stock market." ..." We have no evidence whatever 
that one mind can read the memory of another." 

Again Dr. H in speaking of our subliminals as 

a sort of independent self, and carrying on conversa- 
tion with each other in utterly unconscious fashion, 
and filching information from minds at a distance 
" with all the capacity of Deity and all the devilish- 
ness of Satan," adds : " If you ask me whether I 
believe in any such hypothesis I should answer em- 
phatically that I do not. I do not even admit its 
possibility as suggested by evidence of any kind. 
Scientifically it is preposterous. . . . But I have 
called attention to it for the purpose of showing how 
little sense of humor and intelligence its advocates 
exhibit, when they suppose that it sets aside the credi- 
bility of spirit existence." " If we are going to in- 
dulge hypotheses of explanation at all, it [the 
spiritistic] has a thousand rights where telepathy 



196 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

has one, and this merely on the ground that it actu- 
ally explains while telepathy of any kind does not." 
(Vol. &, Am. Jr.S.P.R.) 

Dr. Savage well says here — " The law of parsi- 
mony demands that the nearest and easiest theory 
which will explain the facts should have the prefer- 
ence. That is, a strained or farfetched theory must 
not be dragged in where the facts can be explained 
by an easier or more natural method." Mr. W. T. 
Stead gives this interesting testimony : " Her name 

[Miss Julia ] is of course perfectly familiar to 

me, but in a dozen years, out of scores of psychics 
and mediums of all kinds, all of whom on the tele- 
pathic hypothesis ought to have had no difficulty in 
reading her name in my mind, only two have ever 
been able to tell me her surname." The spirit com- 
municator does not get the name through unless he 
has knowledge of it. 

THE FATAL LACK OF PERSONAL PSYCHIC 
EXPERIMENT 

It is significant to add here that the gravest charge 
that is made against those who so freely handle and 
expand the telepathic assumption, is the lack of first- 
hand knowledge or the lack of patient, long-continued 
experimental work. If all psychics are frauds, con- 
scious or unconscious, they naturally have little in- 
terest for the spirit sceptic. Mr. Bruce has been 
criticised as depending largely upon book knowledge 
for his data, and that to this fact are due his limita- 
tions. Nothing of course can take the place of the 
long-continued and many-sided experimental work of 
such psychic investigators as Hyslop, Myers, Lodge, 



TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 197 

etc. In the removal of the sense of strangeness and 
personal prepossessions, in the sense of reality and 
humanness, in short in the matter of those deeper 
persuasions and convictions which gradually seize 
upon you and hold you as in the realities of daily 
human intercourse, in this deeper personal sense 
nothing can take the place of direct and open-minded 
spirit communication. If the traveler has seen Lon- 
don and visited its points of interest and felt their 
historic charm, you may invoke all the dialectics and 
telepathic crookedness in the books, but how will you 
convince him it was all illusion? " One thing I know 
that whereas I was blind, now I see." 



CHAPTER XII 

LET US NOW COME TO THE SPIRITISTIC 
INTERPRETATION 

We have given this much space to the telepathic 
discussion, for it seemed necessary to clear the 
ground. But it is a relief to come back from these 
vagaries to a natural and sane view of the situation. 
If one has had experience in psychic work, he knows 
very well that there are a multitude of cases (and it 
is to be noted, many of the cases cited by the telep- 
athist for his own purpose) in which the spirit in- 
terpretation is the only natural and unbiassed solu- 
tion of the facts. At once it brings simplicity and 
harmony. We no longer strain after some psycho- 
logic complexity to degrade and nullify the phe- 
nomena. We are often surprised at the selective 
capacity and the organic unity of the communication, 
at times giving incidents and facts utterly unknown 
to us and afterwards verified, and revealing a glad 
and holy purpose of ministry and assurance and 
comfort. And it is a joyful and exalted surprise, 
the surprise of finding the natural order and con- 
tinuity of this life extended into the world of spirit. 

IT IS AN EXPLANATION THAT EXPLAINS 

And an explanation that explains has great signifi- 
cance and advantage, as the philosophy of evolution 

has found vast significance in giving a natural ex- 

198 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 199 

planation of the universe and its unfolding and diver- 
sity. The spiritistic explanation gives us a process 
of intercommunication and causation which we might 
reasonably expect under the circumstances, it brings 
consistency into the psychic details, and with experi- 
mental work on a high plane united with critical 
study the explanation fulfills its claims more and 
more. And as before stated, there is present a per- 
sonal and dramatic quality which the book theorist 
knows nothing about, and which is especially notice- 
able for its absence in the psychic writings of this 
class. These may well be compared to the dogmatic 
utterances of a preacher who has himself no deep per- 
sonal experience in the matter he is preaching about. 

SPIRIT RETURN AND COMMUNICATION 
INEVITABLE 

It would seem to be inevitable on a spiritistic 
hypothesis of the universe — if God is Spirit, and 
man is spirit, and all things run into spirit — that 
there should be spirit communication in some form if 
not many forms. It would seem to be inevitable that 
our spirit friends should make an effort to make 
themselves known and express the fact of continued 
life and love, unless we relegate them to an utterly 
transcendent heaven removed by trillions of miles 
from a vile earth, or shut them up in an apocalyptic 
walled Jerusalem from which there is no egress. 

With how little critical insight do we read of 
angelic visitations in Bible times, if in easy conven- 
tionalism we assign them to a supernatural order. 
Ought not clergymen, for instance, to see as clearly 
here as the Rev. Heber Newton, who in a lecture on 



Ci 



00 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 



the legends of Genesis and in speaking of angels' 
visits in patriarchal times is reported to have said: 
" There may be other and higher beings than men, 
and communications may well be made from the 
spiritual world to human spirits in human form, and 
these tales may be only the poetic forms of such 
spiritual experiences." The spiritual history of man 
in all ages unmistakably indicates spirit communica- 
tion. Spirit return is inevitable, if we think the 
problem through. But how much longer is the old- 
time notion of heaven, rooted partly in the exclusive- 
ness of the pagan and Jewish heavens, and partly in 
the ancient antagonism of matter and spirit, and 
partly in the theological notion of a sin-cursed earth 
and that the farther we get away from it the better — 
how much longer shall this disjointed, unevolution- 
ary, utterly remote, accessible-only-to-the-elect, ec- 
statically beatific, unnatural and supernatural con- 
ception have sway in our imagination, cutting us off 
from the blessed sense of nearness of the world of 
spirit, and so clogging our minds that spirit return 
seems strange, weird, and impossible? 

CONSIDER FOR A MOMENT THE HIGH PURPOSE 
AND CHARACTER OF THE COMMUNICATION 

" The whole purpose of the work is to save the 
world from its woe by letting the light of truth shine 
on its face. It becomes an incentive to righteousness 
in its best and truest sense, and makes the brother- 
hood of humanity a real and dominant note in the 
progress of civilization." This is the high purpose 
expressed by one spirit communicator [Hibbert 
Jour., Oct., 1913] and the writer adds — " Shall we 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 201 

interpret these utterances as a piece of unconscious 
shamming? " 

" I can say in truth that my whole moral nature 
has been purified and elevated by the influences which 
have flowed in upon me during the investigation of 
this subject. Others I am sure can say the same. 
There are those no doubt who have abused the whole 
thing, befooling themselves and others in a lamentable 
manner. What is there in the wide world that has 
wholly escaped abuse and perversion? " [Rev. Adin 
Ballou.] 

No doubt spirit intercourse has had its shadows as 
well as its lights, and there are psychic manifesta- 
tions of a low and crude order, and this fact we may 
well suppose found a certain expression in so-called 
sorcery, witchcraft, and possession. It is evidently 
a law in the spirit world that like draws like. An 
able psychic writer has said : " Again and again 
have the good spirits warned those with whom they 
wished to communicate to preserve prayerful inclina- 
tions, or the communications would be broken in upon 
by unprogressed spirits." 

Alfred Russell Wallace, in a late number of the 
London Light, is quoted on the moral incentive of 
spirit faith : " The spiritualist who becomes con- 
vinced of the absolute reality and complete reason- 
ableness of the future state, who knows that just in 
proportion as he has developed his higher intellectual 
and moral nature or starved it by disuse, shall he be 
well or ill fitted for the next life he shall enter, that 
as he indulges in passion or selfishness or the reckless 
pursuit of wealth, so does he inevitably prepare him- 
self for misery in that life, is impelled into a pure and 



202 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

moral life by motives far stronger than any which 
either philosophy or religion can supply." 

By " religion " we may suppose is meant here the 
conventional type and conventional rewards and 
punishments. 

If out of personal experience we add a word, it will 
be a strong affirmation that in genuine spirit com- 
munication on a high plane the heart here and the 
heart over there are comforted and healed, the con- 
tinued fellowship with friends who have made the 
great transition is unspeakably blessed to both sides, 
the greatly strengthened assurance that our dead are 
still alive and not far off is something that makes life 
worth living, and all supernaturalism of the old order 
is gloriously surpassed by the living reality. More- 
over, we have here in these expressions a potential 
religious experience and exaltation of the highest 
value. And *one can but smile at the horrified notion 
of some good people about summoning back the dead. 
" Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the ground 
whereon thou standest is holy ground," should be our 
reverent conception in approaching the precincts of 
this higher world through the gateway of the psychic 
intermediary. The expression is incomplete and has 
certain limitations through its various media, but the 
common notion of triviality is far from correct, and 
the trivial itself in its evidential import is anything 
but trivial. 

There are few nobler and richer utterances for the 
inspiration and enlargement of life, for lighting up 
its horizon with endless hope and bringing vision and 
healing to darkened and bereaved souls, and for true 
freedom of the spirit, than are to be found in the 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 203 

highest spirit teachings. And if we hear of contra- 
dictory and even irreverent reports from the other 
side, it may be said that on this side there are plenty 
of such oracles, and why not over there? We need 
not invite such oracles, and whatever their source we 
exercise our reason about them. But we need not 
timidly fear for Christian teaching and the Sermon 
on the Mount, for nowhere do the abiding things of 
religion as Christ gave them receive greater emphasis 
than here. 

SPIRIT TEACHINGS IN THEIR HIGHER ASPECTS 

We have heard the old objection that spirit teach- 
ings are anti-Christ. But what is really meant is 
that they are anti-creedal, anti-speculative. Spirit 
teachings have been under suspicion because they 
deal with the vital and essential things of religion as 
Jesus did rather than with extraneous dogmatics. 

That able expositor, Robert Dale Owen, in ad- 
dressing his book, " The Debatable Land," to the 
Protestant Clergy, writes that probably many of them 
are deterred from the task of discriminating in this 
field from the notion that such teachings are anti- 
Christian. But he adds : " If such spiritual com- 
munication be sought in an earnest, becoming spirit, 
the views presented will in the vast majority of cases 
be in strict accordance with the teachings of Christ. 
They touch upon many things indeed which he left 
untouched, but the spirit is absolutely identical. 
They breathe the very essence of his divine philos- 
ophy." 

A later writer (Henry Kiddle, A.M.) who treats 
this subject in the same broad spirit, declares that 



204 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

the spirit teachings he received breathed the purest 
spirit of religious truth. " They correspond exactly 
with the teachings of the blessed Savior — those 
Beatitudes which ought to be written upon the tablet 
of every person's heart as his guide to virtue here and 
a glorious immortality hereafter. They inculcate 
Christ's great law of love to God and love to man. 
They teach the infinite mercy of God, that repentance 
always and everywhere brings the forgiveness of 
God." 

Take " the greatest thing in the world "— Love. 
And it is something to be remembered the emphasis 
that is laid in the higher spirit teachings upon Love 
and the Golden Rule. " In the next world Love 
ranks higher than what we call wisdom. There sim- 
ple goodness rates above intellectual power. There 
the humble are exalted. There the merciful obtain 
mercy. The better denizens of that world are chari- 
table to frailty and compassionate to sin far beyond 
the dwellers in this. There is no respect of persons. 
There, too, self-righteousness is rebuked and pride 
brought low." 

The highest spirit teachings are resplendent with 
the warmth and glory of love and service, even as 
was Christ's life upon the earth. Love is in the bud 
here with some promise at times, over there it is in the 
full glory of florescence, filling the heavens with its 
fragrance and beauty. 

The natural order and continuity of all life is of 
course emphasized in spirit teachings. And spirit 
teaching anticipated evolution in this respect. Death 
is a brief transition slumber, and life continues into 
the next stage even as it continues from one day to 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 205 

another. " Our virtues, our vices, our intelligence, 
our ignorance, our aspirations, our grovellings, our 
habits, our prejudices even — all pass over with us," 
(what Swedenborg calls " our ruling loves "). The 
view has prevailed that life was a probationary affair 
in a rigid governmental scheme, and death closed the 
books and character became stereotyped. But such 
theological and paralyzing fatalisms find no confirma- 
tion in spirit teaching. Spirit teaching interprets 
the future life in the terms of unity and continuity 
on all lines, we do not leave nature behind but all 
things grow over there as here. The Bible student 
literalist may still publish abroad the old supernatu- 
ral disruptions, and send us tracts on the literal resur- 
rection and the literal advent, and zealously inform us 
that spiritism is the work of angels who fell before 
the flood and that tartarus is the circumambient air 
of our planet. But it is a sadly wasted effort, for 
nature is against it. Contrast with this these signifi- 
cant words from a sermon by Rev. R. Heber Newton 
which well express spirit teaching : " It is the sheer- 
est audacity of dogmatism that undertakes to deny 
the endless possibilities of change in character." 
" Heaven and hell are not shut off from each other 
as we traditionally conceive of them." " When life 
sheds one body, it is but to grow another." 

When it comes to immortality, spirit teaching 
" speaks as one having authority and not as the 
scribes." We renew the evidence which Christ's dis- 
ciples enjoyed. " It brings immortality to light 
under a blaze of evidence which outshines, as the sun 
the stars, all traditional and historical testimonies." 
Is orthodox teaching enough here? Most assuredly 



206 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

a great multitude of thoughtful souls do not find it 
so. " If we only realized," says one, " in what deep 
earnest millions on millions have longed for some sure 
token of another life with a longing past expression." 
And here is the immeasurable, unspeakable service 
which spirit investigation has given to the world — 
it gives us assurance in place of hope. Religion in its 
varying phases has hoped and believed in immortality, 
but psychic science in its reinforcement of religion 
demonstrates it. 

Take this feeling testimony of W. T. Stead in the 
recent book by his daughter : " I had always said I 
would never make my final pronouncement on the 
truths of Spiritualism until some one near and dear 
in my own family passed into the great beyond. 
Then I should know better whether spiritualism stood 
the test of a great bereavement bringing life and im- 
mortality to Jight. And I am here to tell you that the 
reality of my son's continued existence and of his 
tender care for men have annulled the bitterness of 
death. I myself have seen his materialized face. 
One friend has seen him at least three times fully ma- 
terialized, as was our Lord after His resurrection. 
When I realize the difference it makes to have this 
knowledge and to be without it, I feel I must testify 
to you as to the reality of the unseen world around 
us." 

The cry goes up day and night — " Where are the 
loved ones who have been removed from our sight? 
We see the cold, silent form before us, but where is the 
spark that made glad its being? Where, oh, where is 
that that recognized and answered to our love? " We 
may get along somehow when life is full and brimming 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 207 

over. But when the shadow of the wing of the Angel 
of Death falls across our hearts, and a deathly sense 
of separation comes over us, then it is that we need 
assurance and healing. And then it is that spirit 
communion bridges the gulf, and meets the anguished 
need of the human heart. 

Take the ancient problem of evil. There seems to 
be a vague impression that spirit philosophy makes 
light of moral distinctions and obliquities, and that 
everybody goes to heaven so to speak. If such be the 
case, there certainly can be no moral sequence between 
the two worlds, and cause and effect in the moral 
realm would come to an end over there. But the old 
law that reaping follows sowing may not easily be set 
aside. A Persian story is said to represent the soul 
in the next life as confronted by a beautiful being, 
who says, " I am thy good deeds," and shadowed by 
an evil being who declares. " I am thy evil deeds." 

From the spirit John Pierpont, I will select this 
testimony : " There must be some souls who would 
desire oblivion, if it were possible to be bestowed upon 
them. There are some who are so miserable in the 
spirit land that they would fain curse God and die. 
But even these unhappy souls are not outside the law 
of progress." . . . 

Another noble spirit makes this utterance on this 
problem of evil : " Now when the criminal descends 
lower and still lower in crime, when his spirit has been 
deluged again and again with that which follows crime 
— that mental suffering, that unrest, that dissatis- 
faction — when I say it has been deluged again and 
again, by and by it begins to reason. The God with- 
out says to the God within — c Come and let us reason 



208 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

together,' and the result is the man or woman begins 
to feel there is a better way, and that that way is for 
them as for others." 

This spirit believes there is a divine germ of pro- 
gression implanted in every soul by the infinite 
Father, and that this germ will eventually find its 
way to the light. 

From a series of well-authenticated communications 
conducted on a high religious plane, I select the fol- 
lowing ejaculations from a burdened and repentant 
spirit : " Help me to pray. I am a wicked spirit. 
God look upon me in my affliction ! Behold the sor- 
row of this wretched soul in the darkness of purga- 
tory ! My God ! for the life of me I cannot see my 
way. God is my Father. Show pity, good 
Lord." . . . 

Later on after earnest, sympathetic prayer with 
this spirit friend, the sitter received this message: 
" Oh, the light of heaven is dawning. Thank God ! " 
The writer added it was a wonderful presentment with 
dramatic vividness of his spirit friend writhing in con- 
trition for his misspent life, and finding inexpressible 
relief in prayer and the effort to turn to the light. 

Still later on came these words : " Believe me, I 
have suffered such punishment that I would have given 
my life to escape it. But alas ! I chose my own 
career and suffered therefrom. But God is gracious 
beyond expression, and after being relieved through 
prayer I was enabled to indulge in a faint hope which 
soon sprung into abundant trust. I have been lifted 
higher." . . . 

Here is another case. " Believe me, I have more 
than suffered, I have agonized in my state of pain 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 209 

without the help of a soul to afford me relief. And 
what was the cause of all this? I cannot scrawl it 
black enough for my satisfaction — villainy." . . . 
But it is added — " Tell the people of the world that 
Boss Tweed is no longer a reptile. ... In sorrow of 
night I am waiting for bright day." 

The sitter, Henry Kiddle, Superintendent of New 
York City schools, who had known this bold and cor- 
rupt political boss in life, declares he could discern 
in almost every movement of the medium's hand the 
distinguishing traits of the man — force, decision, 
self-reliance, quickness. 

" May the Lord bless you and help you to protect 
me from the terror of contemplation. I never 
thought to be in this state. Horror of horrors ! I 
am surrounded by black darkness, so black I almost 
feel it. Good people, I ask your help, O pray for 
me. God deliver me, Amen ! " 

This also was from a spirit of " bad eminence " in 
his earth career, but who in the self-revelation of the 
spirit turned from himself in terror and sought the 
light. It is added that the medium here burst into 
tears and wept passionately and hysterically for sev- 
eral minutes. 

Certainly spirit teachings do not seem to reveal 
any royal road to heaven, or to be morally indis- 
criminative. The materialist, the corruptionist, the 
evil-minded man in the clear light of the spirit, come 
to a sorrowful and remorseful awakening. " When 
the bad man succeeds he fails, when the good man 
fails, he succeeds." Christ's words are confirmed — 
" If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself 
and take up his cross and follow me." 



210 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

But as a light in the darkness of retribution, I must 
add these noble words from a noble spirit on the re- 
demptive progress of the soul : " The soul is not 
forced into the better way through fear, but always 
through love. And love is always attended by wis- 
dom and justice. With these three angels no soul 
can for any great length of time remain in evil or 
spiritual darkness. All the consequences of evil are 
distinctly portrayed to the soul in all their power, and 
at the same time the consequences of a pure and holy 
life are portrayed to the soul. It instinctively 
chooses the better way, and if it is weak there are 
plenty who are strong to give the helping hand. 
There are no Levites in the spirit world. Good 
Samaritans meet you at every turn." 

Spirit teaching gives us new and needed light on 
the efficacy of prayer. Why is it we have forgotten 
to pray for ^our dead as the church anciently did? 
" If he had not hoped that they that w T ere slain should 
have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to 
pray for the dead." II Maccabees 12 : 44. The 
reason of our neglect seems to be in our blind theo- 
logical fatalism. 

Here is the request of one spirit : " Pray for me. 
Ask all my friends to pray for me, for it makes me 
feel very much better." There is much evidence to 
show that our friends over there have an appreciative 
knowledge of our prayers. It is significant that 
Archdeacon Wilberforce at the outbreak of the Euro- 
pean war plead in Westminster Abbey for interces- 
sion for the wounded soldiers and the newly dead. 
" Wing them into the other world with your prayers. 
The dead always know when you are praying for 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 211 

them." If we have come to a faith in the natural 
order of spirit, we shall pray for our friends over 
there as we pray for them here. 

Finally, what of the Bible in this connection? 
The Bible as a spiritual message of supreme impor- 
tance to the world is not in danger from any quarter. 
And psychic research and the higher spirit message 
are not concerned in superseding the Bible or in rash 
and indiscriminate strictures upon the Bible, what- 
ever the spiritualist bigot may do. (" There are 
other bigots than theological bigots, and quite as 
many bigots in Spiritualism as in any other ism," a 
wise spirit has said.) The higher spirit message is 
undoubtedly profoundly in sympathy with the spirit- 
ual message of the Bible and the deepest truths of the 
soul and religion. If we take Christ's essential teach- 
ings as evidenced in the summary of the law, the 
parables of the Prodigal and Good Samaritan, the 
Golden Rule, and the Sermon on the Mount, we find 
they cluster around two great words — love and 
service. And it is evidently and monumentally true 
that this is the great summary of teaching from the 
higher spheres. But let it be said that spirit teach- 
ing seems to be fully in accord with the best results 
of the literary criticism of the Bible, though we give 
to spirit teaching the priority here. Spirit teach- 
ing gives no support to a bibliolatry that would keep 
us in literalistic bondage to the Bible, that would 
make the book the absolute foundation of all religious 
hope and outlook, and that opposes blindly all devout 
criticism as though thereby our hope would be forever 
shattered. Spirit teaching gives no support to the 
infallibilism which developed after the Reformation, 



212 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

to what we may call the mechanical, dogmatic, tradi- 
tional, superstitious Bible. Spirit teaching is utterly 
opposed to a Bible interpretation that would fetter 
the mind with iron creeds, and dogmatize a pagan hell 
with eternal punishment, and perpetuate a Jewish 
supernaturalism and fatalism, and assign the king- 
dom of this world to Satan, and denounce all psychic 
inquiry into the future as blasphemy. But it remains 
a simple thing to say that we need not fear for the 
Scriptures, its great spiritual testimonies are intact, 
the dross in its earthen setting will never conceal the 
gold, and it is the gold we dig for. But let us mind 
also — and we must insist here strenuously — that 
the Scriptures by no means supersede present-day 
spirit communication, but absolutely need to be sup- 
plemented thereby for the healing of souls and the 
renaissance and constant freshening of our faith in 
immortality. * 

And we must needs add that psychic science ren- 
ders a great service in renewing the Bible by reviving 
faith in its spiritual phenomena. The fascinating 
psychic stories of the Bible have long been hidden 
under a miraculous veil or interpreted as legends, but 
their true psychic character, spirit teaching has pro- 
claimed for many years, and there is no doubt this 
view is supplanting the old. We say again — It is an 
explanation that explains. And it shows clearly how 
religion, to an extent unsuspected or ignored by 
theology, has been influenced by spirit impact and 
communication from the spheres. 

Take such familiar manifestations as the appear- 
ance of the three angels or men to Abraham as he sat 
in the door of his tent ; the mysterious man who ap- 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 213 

peared to Joshua ; the angel of deliverance who came 
to Gideon; the angel of the Lord who manifested to 
Moses out of the illuminated bush ; the conference of 
Saul with the woman (not witch) of Endor; the ap- 
pearance of a man's hand in the writing of judgment 
upon " the plaster of the wall of the king's palace " ; 
the preservation of the four men in the fiery furnace, 
the form of one of them like unto a son of God; the 
prayer of Elijah at Do than that the eyes of the 
young man might be opened to the spirit world; 
Paul's epoch-marking experience near Damascus with 
mention of spirit light and spirit voice ; the Trans- 
figuration experience and its evidence of presence of 
the spirit realm; the resurrection narratives in which 
Jesus suddenly appeared and disappeared, as on the 
road to Emmaus when " he vanished out of their 
sight " ; Peter's entrancement and vision on the house- 
top together with the appearing to Cornelius of a 
man in bright clothing ; the dramatic story of Peter's 
release from prison; Paul's transference in the spirit 
body to the spirit world, and his clairvoyant vision 
of spirit messengers, — all these accounts and more 
are undoubtedly to be classified as spirit phenomena. 
They belong to the natural order of spirit. Indeed it 
is claimed there is not a manifestation in the Bible 
such as listed that cannot be duplicated in modern 
manifestations and vice versa. 

" If those things were true in those days they are 
true now, if authentic then they are authentic now." 
It will not do to forget the unitary significance and 
continuity of life and the universe. The literalist 
and supernaturalist may feel of course the attach- 
ment to tradition and persist in the old interpreta- 



214 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

tion, but it can only make more painful the day of 
disillusionment. What we should do is to thank God 
that the spiritual faculties of men have an altogether 
larger range than theological materialism on the one 
hand and scientific materialism on the other have 
given credit. 

Many things are emphasized in the spirit creed 
which have been overlooked in our credal convention- 
alities here. One truth strikingly enforced again 
and again is the power of thought — and thought 
power not merely in molding spirit substance but in 
molding character. There seems to be a creative and 
far-reaching power in thought which we only par- 
tially recognize here. "Long indulged thoughts of 
evil come at last to poison the whole soul," we are told, 
and when the body is cast off, the real state of the 
case is visible. 

Another constant testimony is the nothingness of 
things — of money, material goods, the station, pomp 
and circumstances of this life. " In these worlds 
money has no meaning." In the clearer vision of 
that life into reality, it comes to pass that many 
things " that are first shall be last and the last shall 
be first." 

While much more might be added to these great 
principles of spirit teaching, we may only add that 
the higher spiritualism should regain the ancient 
place and recognition it had in Bible times. Into the 
great historic stream of Christianity spirit teaching 
has infused itself to some extent, but its healing 
waters should be fully commingled therewith. In the 
terrible recrudescence of the war spirit in Europe, 
the unreality and hollowness of conventional and 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 215 

court religion is painfully revealed. The world in 
its blind and brutal materialism has perishing need 
of a return to reality, to a clear vision of the spirit 
universe and its laws, and to a knowledge of the in- 
evitable sequences and retributions of life, and of the 
infinite Righteousness and Love in all things below 
and above. Only the everlasting reality of the 
natural order of the spirit can bring men face to face 
with themselves. 

" For Nature will avenge her cause 

On ilka creature, 
Who will na' take her, wi' her laws, 

For guide and teacher." 

CONSIDER THE MANNER OF COMMUNICATION 
OR THE TRANCE SITUATION 

And if man is first of all spirit, we can see nothing 
unreasonable about the trance situation, but on the 
contrary its delicate mechanism seems wonderfully 
adapted to serve the end in view. It serves the pur- 
pose of a living telephone between the two worlds. 
The voice and manner of the psychic control in auto- 
matic communication are as natural as in any ordi- 
nary conversation. There is distinctness of per- 
sonality in the control as in human life everywhere, 
and this is maintained through a long series and 
years of sittings. The peculiar inflections of tone 
and endless tokens of individuality that are better 
recognized than described, together with decided dif- 
ferentiation from the medium, are strikingly apparent 
to the psychic student in these matters. Prof. Bar- 
rett (" Psychic Research," by W. F. Barrett, F.R.S.) 
testifies to have recognized repeatedly in trance com- 



216 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

munication " the familiar traits material and trivial, 
habits of thought and tricks of speech that betoken 
a personality or its vraisemblance still existing/' 
There is no evidence or thought of dreaminess or 
hypnotism on the part of the psychic, everything ap- 
pears exactly what it purports to be. 

HYPNOTISM AND SECONDARY PERSONALITY 
RULED OUT 

Dr. Hyslop emphatically rules out hypnotism and 
secondary personality from the conditions of trance 
communication. And we may well suppose that with 
his profound study of the problem and his exceedingly 
wide range of psychic experimentation, he is entitled 
to this judgment. Of the trance state he says: " I 
have never found the slightest traces of suggestibility 
as that is known to the practitioner. Any man who 
has the slightest personal knowledge of such cases can 
easily see that the phenomena have no essential re- 
semblance to hypnotic phenomena." In all his ex- 
periments with Mrs. Piper, Dr. H declares that 

he never found the two conditions of mediumistic 
trance and the hypnotic condition of psychiatry iden- 
tical in her. And this is also given as the testimony 
of Dr. Hodgson who spent eighteen years of experi- 
ment and observation with Mrs. Piper. If one has 
had any observation of the two conditions, it does not 
seem possible to confound them. It is interesting to 
note further a statement of Dr. Hyslop on secondary 
personality, that where indubitable cases of secondary 
personality exist, they never attempt phenomena like 
personal identity, and this is one of the means of 
detecting such cases. And further, the ordinary 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 217 

simulation or representation of hypnotism and sec- 
ondary personality is all based on the normal sensory 
experience of the subject. That is, in brief, hypno- 
tism and secondary personality do not transcend the 
subject, but it goes without saying that the trance 
expression infinitely transcends the subject. 

Returning to the mediumistic trance situation — 
we are given to understand by spirit testimony and 
the clairvoyant seer that there is often detachment of 
the spirit body which yet preserves a vital connection 
with the physical. And meanwhile the spirit control 
possesses the organism more or less, and, if interpre- 
ter, as is often the case, expresses himself or herself 
by words and telepathic symbols as impressed by the 
spirit communicator, or the control may manage the 
entire expression. Unless we deny spirit altogether, 
it is simple, reasonable, and in fair measure under- 
standable modus operandi. 

The Hibbert Journal writer referred to states the 
case thus : " Only experience and familiarity can 
enable one to realize how the mechanism of spirit com- 
munication through mortal bodies comes to seem as 
definite and concrete a problem to be worked out 
under natural law as was the problem of aviation or 
the perfection of the telephone. The way the unseen 
spirit enters into the unconscious body, which is like 
a dead body to it, the need of practice to learn to 
control it just as the young child must practice to 
gain dexterity in the use of its limbs, the extent to 
which the spirit can see earthly objects when unat- 
tached or when working through the body of the 
medium, the gradual waning of the energy toward the 



218 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

close of the interview ; " all these he concludes are 
matters of law and subjects of study and inquiry like 
any other phenomena. Spirit communication belongs 
to the great world of law and order. 

Further, in a matter which we may assume to be 
better understood on the other side than on this, it 
will be interesting to hear somewhat of the spirit in- 
terpretation of the situation. A medium, we are 
told, possesses a peculiar quality of magnetism and 
electricity, and is particularly sensitive to mind out of 
the body. The well-developed medium is surrounded 
with a peculiar atmosphere, and the spirit who can 
enter that atmosphere (for not all can) becomes at 
once in rapport with the medium. The spirit control 
acts upon the passive subject in various ways and 
degrees, while the subject may remain in a dormant 
state, but oftener it is said retires or is externalized 
from the form. The spirit control in the latter case 
possesses the organism or is absorbed, manipulating 
it to a certain extent and acting from within and 
controlling the vocal organs. Or the control may be 
more external, the spirit overshadowing the subject, 
and expressing and acting upon the instrument as the 
musician plays upon the organ. In inspirational 
speaking, it is claimed the spirit control simply comes 
into rapport with the conscious subject and impresses 
its ideas. In trance, the animal magnetism is not 
absent from the body for that would result in death, 
but the magnetic spirit body very often absents itself. 

Such in outline is the rationale of trance communi- 
cation from the other side. It is an exceedingly deli- 
cate operation and requires practice like all other arts 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 219 

or mechanisms. It is all a part of the infinite diver- 
sity of nature, and according to the spirit of our 
quest, according to our levity or reverent earnest- 
ness, crude manifestations may be given or most 
lovely and exalted ones full of peace and assurance 
unspeakable. Let him who would draw nigh hither 
approach with the reverence and devoutness of Moses 
at the burning bush. 

PHILOSOPHY OF THE TRANCE SITUATION 
BY SIR OLIVER LODGE 

The psychic elucidations of Sir Oliver Lodge are 
always important, and his philosophy of the trance 
situation we will give here in substance. He begins 
with the radical relations of thought and matter. 
Thought of itself cannot move objects. It has to 
stimulate and work through the nerves and muscles 
of the living body, and through this medium it is able 
to move matter and is forever engaged in its rear- 
rangement. " By what means the stimulus gets out 
of the psychical region into the physical and liberates 
energy from the brain center, I have not the remotest 
idea, nor, I venture to say, has any one." But the 
operation is the commonest of all human experiences, 
thought is forever playing upon the brain as a musi- 
cian plays upon a key-board, and the psychical con- 
tent is forever translating itself into terms of me- 
chanical motion. But thought or psychic energy is 
social in its nature and is able to affect other minds, 
and by the external medium of air waves does this con- 
tinually in our conversation and speaking. And 
telepathy shows that thought transference may have 



220 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

an even more spiritual quality, and the brain of the 
second person may be impressed in some way outside 
of regular channels. 

Now at death it is religiously orthodox to suppose 
that we shall give up this material mode of manifesta- 
tion for good, no more can we move matter, no more 
impress the minds of our friends. But does this 
sweeping assumption necessarily follow? It does not, 
if one of three things may happen. The telepathic 
power may continue after death, and the spirit intelli- 
gence may operate directly upon the mind here in 
such a way as to lead to some physical effect. This 
is spirit impression. And by the way, it is a simple 
statement to make that all the evidence shows that 
thought transference takes on expansion and power 
over there such as we can but faintly conceive here. 

Then the materializing power which enables us here 
to assimilate* various sorts of material and incorpor- 
ate them into our physical organism, may continue 
over there in a higher form. In this way, the claim 
has been strongly made that Jesus made himself ap- 
parent to the senses of his disciples after the resur- 
rection, and such materializations as that of " Katie 
King " testified to by Sir William Crookes are ac- 
counted for. 

And more likely still, it is asserted, the psychical 
unit may be able to detect and make use of some other, 
specially sensitive organism, so that the hand, or dur- 
ing the temporary vacation of the usual possessor the 
brain and nerves and vocal organs may be utilized for 
a time. And thus in a more or less unpracticed 
fashion, with mediumistic difficulties which forbid more 
than an incomplete expression and which we cannot 



SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 221 

fully appreciate on this side, the message is conveyed 
through this living telephone from spirit to mortal, 
from the world of spirit to the world of matter. 

Is there anything unreasonable about this? But 
how unreasonable it seems to talk over a wire, and to 
interpret a distant friend through the absurd click- 
ings of a telegraphic machine ! 

But run all this through the telepathic mill. We 
know the materialistic grist we shall get here. All 
things are strictly of the earth earthy, everything is 
reduced to dust and ashes, and as for spirits we need 
not look any further than to lying spirits within our- 
selves. And in place of a new sense of dignity and 
assurance and outlook, we wonder what the Lord had 
in mind when He made us so, and if it is worth while 
to think further of anything anywhere beyond, when 
He has so artfully raised our hopes here only to mock 
them at last in the cunning duplicity of our own being 
made in the image of God. What we get is a be- 
wildering complex of irresponsible theorizing and 
meaningless mockery, that distinctly adds to the pes- 
simism and materialism of life. 



CHAPTER XIII 

A TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE SCEPTI- 
CAL INTELLECT AND SPIRIT COM- 
MUNICATION 

" The formation of opinion is a curious matter. Rarely does 
it begin with patient and thorough accumulation of facts. It 
generally starts with a sympathy, a liking, or an antipathy." 

That there are various attitudes of mind toward 
psychic research and spirit return and communica- 
tion, needs no argument. The facts have been here 
all the time, but like other great truths as the Coper- 
nical theory of the universe and evolution, they have 
been slowly perceived in their significance and they 
are slowly adjusted in human belief. They have had 
to meet every conceivable form of scepticism and 
opposition from modes of thought long entrenched, 
and have suffered from mercenary perversions like 
other truths. But such a struggle and sifting 
process we may suppose make for a firmer establish- 
ment in the end. For convenience and brevity we 
might consider the relations of the sceptical intel- 
lect here under the four heads of scientific, dogmatic, 
materialistic, and conservative scepticism. There 
may be other forms of mental opposition, but these 

will do. 

222 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 223 

THE SUBJECTIVE SIDE OF PROOF 

" I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my mas- 
ter's brethren." 

It is well laid down that proof has its subjective 
as well as objective side. Clearly, it is not sufficient 
to marshal the facts and attempt to put them in 
persuasive form, but proof involves the responsibility 
and insight of the subject. Otherwise the old couplet 
will apply: 

" A man convinced against his will 
Is of the same opinion still." 

A good example, it seems to me, of a mind that 
recognizes its subjective responsibility toward the 
truth and treated the truth fairly, is Prof. Hiram 
Corson previously referred to. His son wrote of him : 
" The reality of this other world was believed in just 
as he believed in the reality of this world." He ap- 
plied the same standards of judgment to all psychic 
matters as he did to every-day life and the literature 
of the world. With the " insulated intellect," that 
deigned to look at the subject of spirit only to dis- 
prove, and whose research was wholly based on the 
assumption of fraud or a materialistic psychology — 
with this cast of mind Prof. Corson freely expressed 
his indignation and impatience. Now we can hardly 
gainsay that we may so recognize the subjective ap- 
peal of truth as did Prof. Corson, that when the time 
of visitation comes we shall meet a great truth not 
with the shock and repugnance of a smug com- 
placency in our system, but with the joy and liberty 
of a large discovery — a truth for which perhaps we 



224 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

had long prepared and waited as Simeon waited for 
the consolation of Israel. 

SCIENTIFIC SCEPTICISM, AND HOW IT 
MISSES THE TRUTH 

Now when it comes to science, I think we are apt 
to take it for granted that in this domain of exact 
thought we shall find the open mind, the unbiassed at- 
titude, the impartial and judicial judgment on the 
claims of truth, and eagerness to authenticate the 
truth when its credentials are duly presented. That 
such is by no means the case, we learn after some ex- 
perience and observation. Too much cannot be said 
of the great mission of science in liberalizing religious 
faith, but in its long contention with the intolerance 
of dogmatism it has not kept itself clear from a bias 
and intolerance of its own. Sir Oliver Lodge made 
bold to accuse his brethren of a lack of sympathy and 
occasional hostility to more spiritual forms of truth. 
The materialistic trend of thought in scientific cir- 
cles but a few years ago is well known. And this 
agnosticism had the effect of imposing silence even 
on such great themes as God and immortality, while 
psychic research was considered disreputable and 
spiritistic claims were treated with contempt. Says 
Mr. Carrington — " Huxley, Tyndall, Faraday, 
Haeckel, all showed themselves highly prejudiced 
when it came to this subject, and worse still totally 
ignorant of the evidence that had been accumulated 
by others." 

A new idealism has come into science since those 
days, but it hardly needs to be said that this type 
of scepticism still exists. The scientific sceptic may 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 225 

conveniently consign all psychic phenomena to fraud, 
or if he has honored the subject sufficiently to look it 
up somewhat, he is likely to prefer a labored theoriz- 
ing as the tortuous insinuations of telepathy to an 
admission of spirits. Nothing seems to be more re- 
pugnant to the scientific materialist than spirits. 
" Only keep spirits away from this earth and all is 
well," some one has said. And it is easy to see, if we 
reflect on the situation, that here is our real scepti- 
cism — unacknowledged scepticism of spirit, which 
means scepticism of the future life and its possibili- 
ties. Spirit is so unfamiliar and so outside our pres- 
ent material category, our narrow valley so limits the 
view, that anything beyond, a new world of higher 
order of substance, is passing strange to us. To 
the scientific materialist spirit is superstition, a 
primitive illusion, but it is quite possible that we have 
a worse superstition in making matter our fetish, our 
" all in all." We can only wonder when the material- 
istic telepathist gets to heaven, if he can ever persuade 
himself that he is there. It looks very much as if his 
mental habitudes must needs so overrule that he will 
deem it all a dream, a telepathic hallucination that 
must surely pass away. His mind so long inured to 
spirit scepticism and scientific credulity, may readily 
doubt the spiritual evidences about him as he re- 
nounced them in life. 

INTELLECTUAL SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS 

The trouble with the scientific sceptic is intellec- 
tual short-sightedness. He is sure to miss the truth. 
He interprets law too narrowly, he allows no margins 
for the mysterious unknown. We could sooner trust 



226 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

the intuitions and plain sense of an honest and earnest 
spiritualistic layman in his search for the truth here, 
than the laboriously narrow conclusions of the theo- 
rizing sceptic. " Who by searching can find out 
God? " How little did Paul know about the spirit 
body and world till after his Damascus vision ! And 
how little was the mind of Festus, with its hard and 
worldly limitations, able to apprehend Paul's vision 
when he cried out to him that he was beside himself ! 
And likewise it is temptingly easy for the isolated in- 
tellect, with its scientific and academic prejudices and 
respectabilities, to miss the great truth of a present 
spirit world. Such a world cannot be revealed to the 
inhospitable mind. Subject a mother's love or the 
perfume of a rose or lily to simply the psychological 
or chemical tests of the laboratory, and what is re- 
vealed? The pride of intellect may coolly scrutinize 
the reports W psychic phenomena in its study, and 
resolving them into fair psychologic terms of the ma- 
terial life stow away the entire lot in its telepathic 
pigeonhole, but what it may see is dust and ashes 
beside the real soul of the truth which is destined for- 
ever to elude all such search. It is the story of 
Strauss over again, who having made up his mind 
that an apparition was a miracle and impossibility, 
rejected the fact of Christ's resurrection or his after- 
death appearances. 

Telepathy explains all things, believes all things 
except spirit, and comprehends all things in its little 
measure, and with the air of a magician assures you 
there is nothing here outside of the mundane. It is 
all so simple. Some telepathic sceptics do not admit 
the future life, while others express incidentally the 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 227 

idea that man's subconscious functions may entitle 
him to survival. There remains the possibility that 
we may get to heaven through telepathy. 

THE ELEMENT OF RESPECTABILITY IN OUR 
INTELLECTUAL MISS OF THE TRUTH 

Another element in this intellectual miss of the 
truth might fairly be stated, as it sometimes has been, 
as the element of respectability. It seems to be good 
form not to mention psychic matters in certain sur- 
roundings, least of all the word " spirit." A proper 
thing is to be sceptical and perhaps condescendingly 
cynical about all matters of the psychic realm, and 
even the future life may be under the ban, and the 
proper thing is not to discuss it or bring it up in com- 
pany. If you want to hold to your respectable, 
orthodox bringing-up in the matter that will do very 
well, but keep the whole matter out of sight and do 
not allow yourself to betray the slightest interest in 
it. Of course with the earnest seeker of the truth or 
the pioneer spirit, the mere attitude of good form, 
which has blocked the way of about every command- 
ing spiritual truth, will pass for what it is worth. 

THE HEART HAS ITS RIGHTS AND MUST BE 

HEARD 

But it is significant that the scientific sceptical in- 
tellect fails to take the heart into its counsel in its 
search for the truth. The heart has its rights and 
must be heard. The lines of Tennyson are 
familiar : — 

" A warmth within the heart would melt 
The freezing reason's colder part — 



228 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

And like a man in wrath the heart 
Stood up and answered, ' I have felt/ " 

When mind, and heart and the subtlest intuitions of 
the soul are in conflict, the heart is often destined to 
win. It has been so with the burdensome and refrac- 
tory dogmas of theology. The heart may hold its 
own by a superior law in spite of seeming irreconcile- 
ments and protests of the coldly critical faculties, 
and at last when the fogs and mists that more or less 
obscured the outlook have cleared away, its day of 
vindication comes. It cannot be otherwise with this 
great and vital and most commanding issue of com- 
munion and communication with our loved ones who 
have passed into the unseen. The human heart is 
demanding its response here more and more and must 
have it. %ii Rachel weeping for her children refused 
to be comforted, because they were not." 

Orthodoxy cannot or does not meet the exigency, 
it is slow in appropriating new truth, and it is slow 
in recovering this lost truth of the early church. At 
present it has to confess its shortsightedness and 
utter inability to construct the future. Science at 
its best has done much to prepare the way, but merely 
critical study with no vision beyond materialistic 
standards and measurements and no greater interest 
than to establish a scientific dogma, this is the last 
thing that can ever bring inspiration and satisfaction 
to the soul of man. 

" Oh, we have learned to peer and pore 
On tortured puzzles from our youth ! 

We know all labyrinthine lore, 

And know all things but the truth." 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 229 

Meanwhile the heart will be heard, it insists upon a 
certain guidance in great spiritual matters that 
vitally concern it, and from its inner sanctuary it 
sheds an effulgence of its own upon the path of life. 
There is a light that was never on land or sea, which 
the critical probing intellect does not give, it is the 
light the soul emanates at its highest and best, the 
light that lights up the way between the soul and 
God, and between the two worlds or the human heart 
and its loved ones over there. And the theorizing 
intellect that cannot see beyond its materialistic psy- 
chology has no power to extinguish this light. The 
heart in its high and holy impulses does not vitiate 
the truth, but is absolutely indispensable in the dis- 
covery of the highest truth. The heart will come to 
its own, and love is destined to bridge all chasms. 

DOGMATIC BIAS AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 

A more common phase of the sceptical intellect 
here, is the mind held fast by ecclesiastical and dog- 
matic prepossessions instilled by long training and 
revered associations. Such a mental type will not 
easily be hospitable to any truth not congenial to the 
old order, and if summoned to meet a larger truth 
with disturbance or disruption of some cherished con- 
ceptions supposed to be final and conclusive, may 
strongly react. Of course much depends upon the 
temperament of the individual and broadness of out- 
look. If one's motto is " Think and let think," as 
Dean Brown of Yale asserts of the religious mental 
attitude of the Pacific Coast, then the advent of a 
larger spiritual truth in the divine order may not 
awaken such antagonism but that it may receive some 



230 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

degree of fair examination. But we well know that 
not all minds have their windows open toward the 
east. A mind may be so intolerant and self-opinion- 
ated that it will militate any and all things that 
offend the conventional and transcendental concep- 
tions imbibed in its particular church atmosphere. 
The most depressing scepticism is not always outside 
of the creeds but within the creeds. 

A well-known writer says on the matter of evi- 
dence : " I know men, who, if you should offer them 
evidence in a certain direction, would in a lordly 
fashion with a wave of the hand sweep it out of exist- 
ence. They will not go two steps to see whether you 
have any evidence or not." Now this is not simply 
prejudice, it is deep personal bias or unreasoning 
bigotry. ^This spirit has happily much abated in the 
light flooding our modern life, but it is the spirit that 
misses the higher truth and has wrought untold mis- 
chief and persecution in history. 

THE OLD CONTROVERSY BETWEEN AUTHORITY 
AND REASON 

One fundamental cause of the dogmatic confusion 
and bigotry of the past still affecting the present, we 
may well set down as the exaggerated assumptions of 
ecclesiastical authority with the slur cast upon human 
reason. It is the old controversy between Abelard 
and Bernard. Bernard took the position that in- 
quiry should be altogether banished from the prov- 
ince of religion. Abelard ventured to suggest that it 
might be well to inquire somewhat into the reason of 
things. In the development of this long struggle be- 
tween authority and reason, the church instinctively 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 231 

denounced rationalism, which term came to have an 
evil repute, and prescribed terrible penalties for those 
who presumed to set human reason above her author- 
ity. This could not but result in the exaggeration 
of the dogmatic spirit and the inflexibility and exclu- 
siveness of the creeds. 

But the despotic reign of dogma is by no means 
what it was, and the mind of man is learning to rea- 
son about its relations to the universe as never be- 
fore. Human reason, notwithstanding its limita- 
tions, is our guide in the practical affairs of life, it 
is a divine guide which God himself has given us, and 
our guide it must be in the interpretation and accept- 
ance of the highest truths of life. Reason is to be 
disciplined and clarified, but it is our final interpreter 
of life and truth. If we cannot depend upon reason, 
though we make mistakes and have to learn by our 
mistakes, really what have we to depend upon ? And 
history and science and literary criticism have shown 
us unmistakably that church and Bible cannot speak 
ex cathedra as once, that they are not literally and 
finally authoritative in themselves, but are to be in- 
terpreted always by the enlightened reason. 

" The reason which we have in human life is the 
oracle that stands between our God and ourselves, al- 
ways pointing the way." This is spirit testimony, 
but it seems reasonable. If one prefers to put reason 
in the background and follow ecclesiastical authority 
without reason, we do not covet their position. 

THE DOGMATIC ASCRIPTION OF ALL PSYCHIC 
PHENOMENA TO SATAN AND DEMONS 

But with this explanatory beginning, let us pass 
at once to the relation of the dogmatic spirit to psy- 



232 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

chic teaching. In a late article on spiritualism by 
an English rector, circulated in " The Fundamen- 
tals," all spiritistic phenomena and teaching are 
cheerfully ascribed with a show of Biblical learning to 
Satan and seducing spirits. He asserts that spirit 
communication is sternly forbidden by God, that God 
would destroy those concerned in it, and its mediums 
God commanded to be stoned. Such a conception 
of God might well lead one to reflect a little, for it 
would inevitably include the ablest psychic research- 
ers and a multitude of earnest souls who have pro- 
foundly believed that divine wisdom itself has estab- 
lished this path of communication between the two 
worlds. 

The writer easily and solemnly ascribes to God the 
Infinite One all the " familiar spirit " legislation of 
the Old Testament, and which seemingly was formu- 
lated by the priesthood in the jealous interest of its 
prerogatives. It may well be that there were crudity 
and perversion in the mediumship of that age. But 
it remains that the priest has always been jealous of 
the prophet, and of any vision but his own, and when 
in power has put under stern penalties any mediation 
with the unseen except through his own appointed 
forms. " A man or woman that hath a familiar 
spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to 
death, they shall stone them with stones," Leviticus 
20:27. That the writer would seriously restore me- 
dieval authority to a text perverted so long in the in- 
terest of witchcraft delusion and its unspeakable 
horrors, reveals if nothing else the bias of his mind 
and his entire ignorance of any true experimental 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT £33 

knowledge of the matter he treats. The dogmatic 
attitude that once looked upon all priestly legislation 
and every " Thus saith the Lord " as a veritable di- 
vine oracle has abated no doubt, but there is evidently 
something of it left. 

There has always existed this egotistical tendency 
to appropriate the Almighty on our side to the con- 
fusion of our enemies. It is exemplified among re- 
ligious zealots, and this strained assumption has been 
much commented upon in the despatches of a cer- 
tain ruler who has been looming large of late before 
the world. 

The writer of this anti-spiritistic article is much 
concerned that spirit philosophy denies or ignores 
the existence of a personal devil, of demons, and an- 
gels, of heaven and hell, of infallible inspiration, and 
the Genesis story of the fall of man, and the office 
and work of Christ, presumably as laid down in the 
Westminster Confession of his church. 

It is most evident, first of all, that there is no fel- 
lowship here with the great liberalizing movement of 
modern thought. And a bare sense of humor ought 
to show one that a devil made up so largely out of 
Milton's " Paradise Lost " and Dante's " Inferno " 
and so long rampant in the superstitions of the Mid- 
dle Ages, with demons borrowed from the demonology 
of ancient Persia and Babylonia, might be a good 
riddance after all. If the writer insists on peopling 
his imagination with these picturesque beings, or 
with the Jewish type of angels the court attendants 
and messengers of King Jehovah, or if he will have 
the unseen world in two vast compartments, a Jew- 



234 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

ish, New Jerusalem type of heaven and a pagan hell 
with its unspeakably degrading and burdensome her- 
itage, he has his rights but he needs sympathy. 

Everything goes to show there is a moral separa- 
tion between the good and the really evil in the world 
of spirit, though with opportunity for progress al- 
ways open. But they are not separated by the neth- 
ermost bounds of the universe as Milton and Dante 
conceived. There is evidently a certain unity of the 
spirit world, though adapted to all degrees of spir- 
itual condition ; the universe is not infinitely disrupted 
in twain. The author quotes with disapproval: 
" All spirit people of wisdom, knowledge, and love 
say the^e is no burning hell, no fearful devil." Well, 
people differ in their religious views and tastes. But 
when shall we learn that a literalistic idolatry of the 
Bible is not so pious an enterprise as it seems on the 
surface, but is most degrading to the book ; and that 
it is a dangerous thing to appropriate all the truth 
and sincerity and godliness at large and leave noth- 
ing for those who have come to profoundly believe 
that the infinite Wisdom has some truth for us in 
psychic research. Christianity is not like the Nile 
with no tributary, but has in the past and will in the 
future, though it be slowly, take to itself new forms 
of truth. 

I have taken this case because it is of very recent 
date, and is a good illustration of a certain dogmatic 
attitude toward spirit philosophy. The famous anti- 
spiritualist argument of Prof. Austin Phelps (1871) 
was much more ably written, but it was before the 
days of psychic research, and the situation has 
greatly changed. His strictures on the vagaries of 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 235 

the Spiritualism of his day we may well suppose to be 
just to a large extent. But while the professor holds 
up the objectionable features and perversions of the 
lower forms of Spiritualism or what has passed for it, 
he is markedly ungenerous in ignoring the higher 
Spiritualism, and such an able and philosophical 
treatment as that by Dr. Robert Hare, professor of 
chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, he no- 
tices not at all. He conceded a certain basis of phe- 
nomenal facts, which he could not otherwise than do 
considering the well-known poltergeist performances 
at the house of Dr. Eliakim Phelps, his father, at 
Stratford, Conn. But he quotes with approval a 
saying of Pres. Day of Yale — " Either nothing is in 
it [Spiritualism], or the devil is in it," and he pushes 
to the front as " a sufficient cause " for all that 
Spiritualism has to offer the old biblical doctrine of 
a personal devil. In the days when the devil sufficed 
to explain so many things, this charge had some in- 
fluence, but to the intelligent psychic student of to- 
day, it is unworthy of the slightest serious considera- 
tion, and in fact has only an amusing and childish 
sound. 

" Credo " came later, and its writer, Dr. L. T. 
Townsend, admits there is a spiritualism of the Bible 
which the church has neglected to teach, and which 
implies the nearness of a spirit world, and also admits 
unexpectedly — " The effort of the church has been 
to banish the dead to the greatest possible distance 
from the earth." But against spirit communication 
through the gifted organism of a sensitive medium, 
he is violently antipathetic. Our spirit friends may 
visit us freely and make impressions directly upon our 



236 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

brains or spirits, but this is the utmost permissible 
limit with Dr. T. ; there must be no attempt to voice 
a message through the mediation of the human organ- 
ism. 

Just why this psychologic limit is laid down is 
apparent when the author with great approval quotes 
the familiar priestly statutes of the Old Testament 
after the manner of the two previous writers. The 
living truth of to-day has thus no chance, if it clashes 
with ecclesiastical prohibitions of 3000 years ago 
and offends a bibliolatry that casts a halo even over 
the moral barbarisms of the Old Testament. The 
solution of Spiritualism in this book is of course — 
demonism. The writer renders II Peter 2:4, " God 
spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down 
to the atmosphere of earth." Our atmosphere, he 
assumes, is the home of those demons expelled in 
Satan's rebellion, and Satan himself is " the prince of 
the power of the air." Now if disposed we may take 
this ancient conception seriously, but the candid stu- 
dent knows that this is plain Christian mythology, 
and involves the Ptolemaic world system with God 
enthroned upon the firmament. But the passage 
served the writer's purpose and the setting did not 
concern him. He closes his indictment thus : " In 
the darkened circle man stands in another world, 
face to face with supernatural and malevolent beings 
— demons." This is as far as Dr. Townsend got. 

One must at once and heartily concur in the writ- 
er's condemnation of the delinquencies of Spiritual- 
ism, its excessive criticism of church and Bible in its 
revolt from orthodoxy, and in the early movement a 
free love agitation in certain quarters as a revolt, so 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 237 

claimed, from marital and sexual tyranny. But we 
must add also that the writer is intemperate in his 
language, he lacks the restraint of Prof. Phelps, and 
he is blindly ungenerous in the acknowledgment of 
any truth. He charges Spiritualism as a treasonable 
plot against society, morality, and religion. " Noth- 
ing in society should receive a more bitter and scath- 
ing condemnation than medium spiritualism." What 
can we think of such biassed words as these other than 
the utterance of a fearful and jealous dogmatism? 
Spiritualism is justly charged with much intemperate 
language, but this surely will not be rebuked and 
allayed by similar indiscriminating and unjust 
charges from the defenders of orthodoxy. It seems 
to be the fate of all great revelations of truth to 
suffer many perversions. 

There is another curious blind spot in the eye of 
this writer. He applies to the spirit body and world 
a certain superstitious popular notion of ghostly un- 
reality. " Let us have done with spiritualistic and 
anti-scriptural notions which reduce the universe to 
gas and our deceased friends to atmospheric phenom- 
ena. We are not to become ghosts and nothings." 
There is a curious perversion of imagination in this 
picture, and the lack of knowledge it betrays of real 
psychic study and experiment and of the possibilities 
of the ethereal universe needs no comment. 

The dogmatic bias, we must admit, has found 
strong expression in the past at least. I cull the fol- 
lowing from an anti-spiritistic book expanded from 
an essay before the Providence ministers' associa- 
tion : " To seek unto mediums is to forsake God. 
We are to turn from them as from the path to hell. 



238 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

Either the Bible is false, or the wrath of God is de- 
nounced against this whole system with all its abet- 
tors and agents " (Page 142, etc.). 

It certainly seems rash to put the Bible on so un- 
certain a foundation. 

As a contrast to these rather violent words, I quote 
the following recent utterance from the psychic stu- 
dent, Mr. Hereward Carrington, whose first-hand and 
critical knowledge of Spiritualism and of its parasitic 
exploitations it would be hard to excel. 

" And its philosophy we find to be what the broad- 
est religion teaches, love of God and of humanity, 
that* there is no royal road to heaven, that unselfish- 
ness, purity of conduct and thought are the standards 
for all, and by which all advance here and hereafter. 
In many ways spiritualism has accomplished vast 
good." (" Annals of Psychic Science.") 

It is fair to state here that the dogmatic bias does 
not find so general or pronounced expression now as 
formerly. The whole subject of investigation of the 
spirit world has taken on a scientific prestige and re- 
spectability which were formerly not accorded, and 
not a few ministers have reached a stable foundation 
of spiritual reality in these psychic demonstrations. 
Indeed the total influence of the psychic movement 
upon assurance of immortality is probably greater 
than has been credited. But it remains that the old 
bias is still in force in large quarters. 

THE OLD TRANSCENDENCE OF THE FUTURE 
LIFE AND ITS BAR TO SPIRIT TEACHING 

This account of the dogmatic influence would be 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 239 

incomplete without a little supplemental reference 
here to the transcendentalism of the future life. This 
is well set forth in a story worth repeating for the 
point at issue, in which the minister's wife was con- 
cerned about recognition in heaven. On questioning 
her husband, the reply, after the fashion of the day, 
was that he expected he should be so absorbed and 
enraptured in contemplating the glory of God that he 
would not be mindful of her existence or of anything 
else for the first thousand years. The poor woman 
felt uncomfortable as well she might. Such a state 
of ecstatic absorption and bewildering glory doubt- 
less seemed a sudden and tremendous jump from the 
human touch and home-likeness of her surroundings. 
And the unsocial element of the strained reply was 
disturbing. We can but feel that only confusion and 
paralysis could result from such a revolutionary 
breaking up of all life's continuities. 

A spirit communicator has said, " I used to think 
sometimes that it was the human element in the com- 
munication that made the religious world balk at 
their acceptance. If the agonized cries of souls in 
Purgatory or triumphant strains of saints in Para- 
dise had broken through the blue, the church would 
have found its verification and been with us." And 
undoubtedly such ecclesiastical representations of the 
future state, fostered by the great poems of Dante 
and Milton and by Bunyan's Allegory and fervid 
hymns and represented widely in art and painted 
window, have tended strongly to bias the mind in 
favor of the utter transcendence of the future and to 
rob it of all humanness and natural quality. 



240 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

BUT IS THE LOSS OF THE OLD TRANSCENDENCE 
TO BE DEPLORED? 

It seems to be generally true that where scientific 
thought and knowledge enter some field previously 
but little investigated or left to tradition, we are 
called upon to modify our conceptions and perhaps 
in a large degree. We have a striking instance out 
of many in the light which science has shed upon the 
origin of man, with the consequent bearings of the 
evolutionary principle upon theological thinking. 
Tradition is always disturbed at first, but in the end 
is greatly transcended by the truth. And if spirit 
communication be valid, we must naturally expect 
some modification of our traditional and apocalyptic 
conceptions of the unseen world and the life contin- 
ued. And though the world of spirit so differing in 
nature cannot be reproduced for us in reality, yet 
some real knowledge such as we do obtain is worth a 
great deal of pious conjecture. We are assured from 
the other side that the actuality of the spirit abodes, 
their marvelous fitness to all conditions of progress, 
the multiplicity and congeniality of the interests and 
employments of the spirit worlds, the many mansions 
or the infinite spaciousness of the spirit universe, the 
vastly heightened powers of our being, and the in- 
creasing beauty and glories of the onward and up- 
ward course, surpass all possible imagery of seer 
and poet. Tradition fears that our hopes of immor- 
tality may be bedraggled, but the whole conception 
has been immensely ennobled and lifted to a higher 
plane, and freed from certain intolerable features, 
and given a certain unity and scientific consistency 
which were hopeless under the old order. How we 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 241 

fear the light and are afraid to go beyond our half 
truths ! 

Sir Oliver Lodge has this to say : " The future 
state has been thought of as if it were altogether 
transcendental. It is not necessarily so at all. I 
do not consider by any means that it conveys a feel- 
ing of immediate vast difference and change, some- 
thing much more like terrestrial existence. It ap- 
pears to be a state which leaves personality and char- 
acter and intelligence much where it was. No sudden 
jump into something supernal, but steady and contin- 
ued progress, with many activities and interests be- 
yond our present ken. . . . We need not search after 
something so far removed from humanity as to be 
unintelligible." 

These words cannot but commend themselves to our 
reasonable self as wise and weighty words from an 
unusually wise and devout student of the unseen. 
Dr. Hyslop says on this point : " After the doctrine 
of evolution it is absurd to take any cross section of 
this process and assume that the next stage of it 
will mark an immeasurable distance and degree of 
progress. It is flatly against all the laws and analo- 
gies of nature to do this." 

" It is so different from what we deemed it would 
be. It is not a life to fear, but one to wonder at, 
and be constantly surprised and confounded." " It 
is better, but different, far different than what she 
thought. She had no idea of the reality of the spirit 
life, and it came as a joyous revelation to her." 
These are samples of many like reports from the 
other side. 



242 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" The other side was all unknown, 

But as I slowly toiled along, 

Sweeter to me than any song 
My dream of visions to be shown. 

" At length the topmost height was gained, 

The other side was full in view; 

My dreams — not one of them was true, 
But better far had I attained. 

" For far and wide on either hand 

There stretched a valley broad and fair, 
With greenness flashing everywhere — 

A pleasant, smiling, home-like land." 

J. W. Chadwick. 

Prof. Barrett makes an interesting reference in 
his book " Psychic Research V to the reluctance of 
Mrs. Piper in her emergence from trance to relinquish 
her vision or to withdraw from the bright scenes of 
the spirit realm. At one time she addressed the 
friends about her with uncompromising frankness : 
" I don't want you. I want the other place. You 
look funny. You are ugly to say the least. I never. 
I wouldn't look like you. Are you alive ? There are 
others more alive than you are up there." 

Is the loss of the old transcendence to be deplored? 
Here are three brief extracts from as many different 
spirit testimonials on this point, and with these we 
forbear. 

" Your eyes cannot see, your ears cannot hear, 
neither can it enter into your hearts to conceive all 
the glories that pertain particularly to the spirit 
world. You may catch faint glimpses of its reality, 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 243 

but the clear noon-tide glory of the reality you can- 
not understand, until you too shall become disrobed 
of the flesh, and shall stand gazing upon it through 
spiritual senses." 

" It is not a vague, unsubstantial, unreal world. 
No ! It is a world substantial and real. It is a step 
beyond this mundane physical world. It is the beau- 
tiful perfection of this world. If the rose is beauti- 
ful here, it is far more beautiful there. . . . We tell 
you again and again, there are beautiful things in 
the spirit world, trees, flowers, grasses, fruits, all 
that you have here are faithfully represented there. 
You may be sure of that." 

" There is music in the land of souls, so far beyond 
the music of earth's sphere, that were you this hour 
to be translated there, you would scarcely compre- 
hend it." (From " Flashes of Light.") 

We may rest assured that the new transcendence 
will far exceed the old, and truth will always hold its 
own and do us good and not evil. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 

THIS LITTLE WORLD ALL THERE IS 

We have referred to a materialistic bias. And it 
is something to be taken account of; we can detect 
it in our thoughts as we come to the spiritual. The 
bald idea is — this little world is all there is, and 
* anything assumed to transcend this is superstition, 
stands above. If any evidence for spirit is offered 
with some credentials of authority, this undisciplined 
bias assumes that the whole thing is reducible to mat- 
ter. If there are those who find unspeakable per- 
sonal assurance and comfort in spirit communion, 
this native bias may set them down as visionaries and 
not well-balanced. In its secret heart it is sceptical, 
unconsciously perhaps, of any spiritual interpreta- 
tion of life at all. To some minds spirit and spirit 
philosophy seem to be inherently absurd, this world 
of matter is so familiarized to perception and so in- 
wrought into their life and seemingly so indispen- 
sable, they think they cannot think out of it. " Spirit 
is the last thing I will give in to," said Sir David 
Brewster. With a conventional ecclesiasticism or 
dogmatism which themselves involve a large heritage 
of materialistic elements and ordinances, this type of 
materialist may find himself in sympathy. But to 
religious mysticism it does not take easily, and in psy- 
chic research it has no interest, and spirit philosophy 

it may look upon as strange and repugnant. 

244 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 245 

THE FATAL LACK OF IMAGINATION 

Now the fatal lack here is, of course, imagination. 
It needs to be emphasized that there is a function of 
the religious imagination in our search for truth 
which cannot well be too much magnified. The sweep 
and far-seeing of the imagination may be likened to 
a view from a mountain top, it keeps us from seeing 
only the things near our feet. We may say there is 
no world but of the senses, and no truth but the bare 
facts of the materialistic life, but the world of the 
senses is confessedly limited, and material forms 
about us have a halo of mystery that passes into the 
unseen. We are under the tyranny of the fact. 
Prof. Richet confesses that his mind moved habitually 
along a road of materialistic facts. He was taught 
respect for fact, a habit of exact and prosaic ob- 
servation controlled by rigorous tests. Such a mind 
in the nature of things will find it difficult to rise 
above its hard path and bare surroundings into the 
more ethereal region of the spirit. But the fact is 
by no means what the materialist and literalist think 
it is. It is only a partial truth, a symbol, or an 
amalgam of some truth with much error, while the 
larger interpretation is unperceived and extends away 
into a world of unseen facts. 

We may say there is no truth in religion or in im- 
mortality but what is contained in the bare literal 
dogmas of the creeds, but here again there is a sad 
lack of spiritual imagination, and this is one great 
reason of the unsatisfactoriness and insecurity of 
formal creeds. They attempt to imprison that which 
cannot be imprisoned, they ignore the larger, elusive, 
imaginative element in spiritual truth, that is ever 



246 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

hinting its existence like some angel spirit hovering 
about us and inviting us to further search. Take 
two instances out of not a few. In the ancient Atha- 
nasian creed, out of forty-two articles I have counted 
twenty-six devoted to a metaphysical exposition of 
the Trinity, and the creed closes with this injunction: 
" Let him therefore that would be saved think thus 
of the Trinity." And again the time-lingering doc- 
trine of a bodily resurrection has its origin and per- 
petuation in this lack of spiritual imagination, in 
lack of spiritual insight into our spiritual constitu- 
tion, and in the effort to make real in a gross physical 
way to the man of the world a life after death. 

Very impressively does the spiritual imagination 
teach us that we must make our creeds as we go along. 
What shall we say then? If the infinite Being of 
the infinite universe of to-day cannot be imprisoned 
or exactly defined in twenty-six phrases of materialis- 
tic, incomprehensible metaphysics, and if the truth is 
forever overleaping its literal and conventional 
bounds, what shall we say of the spirit world? In 
this progressive revelation of God out of the letter 
into the spirit, shall we look for any new light here? 
We will let the question answer itself. 

CONFLICT OF THE NEW WITH THE OLD 

And then there is a certain conflict of the new with 
the old we must just note. How inevitable this con- 
flict is and how historical has been its range, one can- 
not well appreciate till he has devoted some consider- 
able research into this attitude of the human mind 
toward new ideas and discoveries. The divine pro- 
gram for man is undoubtedly progress, and the divine 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 247 

invitation has been in the words of Jehovah to Moses, 
— " Speak unto the children of Israel that they go 
forward." But the conservative and reactionary 
tendency of the human mind has been to walk in the 
old paths, the ancestral ways, and avoid the strange 
and untried new ways. " Stand ye in the ways and 
see, and ask for the old paths, and walk therein," has 
been the cry. 

THE NEW HAS TO FORCE AND WIN ITS WAY 

The world is apt to resent anything to which it is 
not used; there is some disturbance and rearrange- 
ment of life involved, an uncertainty and alarm, which 
excite opposition. The remark is ascribed to Goe- 
the : " If any one advances anything new people 
resist with all their might, they speak of the new view 
with contempt, as if it were not worth the trouble of 
even so much as an investigation or a regard, and 
thus a new truth may wait a long time before it can 
make its way." It seems to be true that progress in 
the world on almost all lines has had to force its way. 
We might suppose beforehand that the world would 
put itself in the way of all progress and welcome 
every new truth and vitalizing idea, every enlarge- 
ment of human thought that tended to clear the way 
and bring new freedom and privilege to life. But 
we do not sufficiently reflect on the aversion and in- 
ertia of the human mind to change, and on the lack 
of clear understanding of the nature and fitness of the 
new truth in the scheme of life. The new has so 
often met with ridicule and persecution that it is an 
old story. Great reforming ideas and movements are 
not invited, but they have to win and fight their way 



248 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

patiently against the older long-entrenched positions. 
We may perceive a certain divine economy in this, 
that the new has the opportunity to prove itself and 
free itself of errors and crudities and so establish it- 
self in the end the more firmly. But the world did 
not want any of them at first. 

New scientific truths according to Le Bon are not 
received on their merit, but are propagated by pres- 
tige and official position. And this is like a saying 
of Dr. Hyslop — " Good company is often more ef- 
fective than logic in establishing proof." It is said 
that Galileo thought to prove by experiment before 
the faculty of the University of Pisa, that bodies of 
different weights fall with the same velocity. He let 
fall at the same moment a small leaden ball and a 
cannon shot of the same metal from the top of a 
tower, and showed they both reached the ground to- 
gether. The professors, notwithstanding the visual 
evidence before them, appealed to Aristotle and re- 
fused to modify their opinions. 

Flammarion tells a strange story in " The Un- 
known " of the presentation of Edison's phonograph 
to the French Academy in 1878. An acadamician 
whose mind was stored with classical traditions, in- 
dignant at the audacity of the demonstrator, rushed 
toward him and seizing him by the collar cried out — 
« Wretch, we are not to be made dupes by a ventrilo- 
quist." And six months later in the same learned 
assembly, this scientific sceptic declared after a close 
examination that the instrument was nothing but an 
acoustic illusion and that it was impossible to admit 
that mere vile metal could give out the sounds of the 
human voice. And so we have scientific sceptics who 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 249 

can see nothing in the whole field of psychic phenom- 
ena but hallucination. 

The new thing looks suspicious to us ; it is not in 
our philosophy of life, or in the religion of our fa- 
thers we think, it is a stranger and intruder and is to 
be treated as such. We doubtless have not entirely 
got over that primitive instinct which, it is said, led 
every community to regard a newcomer as an enemy, 
and an enemy to be despoiled and maltreated and even 
put to death. 

PROGRESS HELD TO BE OF SATAN 

It has been taught that God has ordained things 
to be as they are, to be as they are in religion and 
creed, and government and industry. All these 
things are divinely established it is claimed, priests 
and kings rule by divine right, and any questioning 
or meddling is of Satan. It is a great doctrine for 
tyrants and orthodoxies. Many utilizations of na- 
ture's forces and laws were regarded at first as pro- 
fane interferences with the divine order. The first 
fanning-mill, it is said, was " a wicked invention to 
raise the devil's wind," and the application of water 
for propelling a saw mill was a league with the same 
individual. And one of the common accusations 
against spiritualism and all psychic phenomena as 
we have noted, has been this old familiar charge of 
Satanic agency. A new idea in religion, a larger 
conception of the future life, or any spirit of inquiry 
and search must of course be a Satanic intrusion. 
The scientist cannot conscientiously subscribe to the 
devil, but he substitutes telepathy, which in his hands 
is only another name for the same agency. 



250 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

The new idea ! how it disturbs our little world, and 
we find no place for it. The new light ! how we turn 
away from it. Is not the truth of our little system 
changeless and complete? Was not the light ad- 
justed once for all? 

Dr. Washington Gladden in a late number of " The 
Biblical World " tells an incident of a man of many 
degrees, president of a university, who, when asked 
if he had read any of the scholarly critical literature 
on the Bible, replied — " No, and I don't intend to. 
I got my views about inspiration settled when I was 
in the seminary and I don't wish to have them unset- 
tled." There are those still who seek every occasion 
to discredit and reprehend the whole critical and evo- 
lutionary movement of modern thought. They are 
aggressive and denunciatory in their propaganda of 
infallibilism and the old mechanical order. But with 
the writer quoted, we believe their sophistications are 
not good for the soul ; they tend to blunt moral vision 
and to make men narrow and petty and intolerant. 
Neither are such sophistications good for the soul 
when in passing from the old to the new we are 
brought face to face with the revelation of the unseen 
through physics and psychic research. 

THE DANGER OF REVERSION TO FORMER 
MENTAL HABITUDES 

Then there is the very present danger of reversion 
to former dominant ideas and mental habitudes. 
" And they said one to another, Let us make a cap- 
tain and let us return into Egypt." The mind does 
not easily and at once change its outlook, and reshape 
its convictions, and escape from its prepossessions. 



THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 251 

It seems to be a psychological law that certainty does 
not follow on the first evidential view of a new order 
of truth, the mind must become gradually habituated 
to the new view and the evidence must be allowed a 
certain cumulative force. In psychic observations, 
it is claimed, we must reckon with a very general in- 
clination to deny on second thoughts what seemed 
absolutely convincing on the spot and at the moment. 
Certainty follows on habit. The world about us has 
its peculiar mental atmosphere, we are beset by its 
opinions and prejudices, and these hold us in so 
strong a grip that we do not easily free ourselves. 

Prof. Richet averred that it took twenty years of 
patient research and sixty experiments with Eusapia 
Paladino for him to arrive at his then present con- 
viction. On the other hand, Prof. Muensterburg 
after two sittings, it is said, asserted that all Eu- 
sapia's phenomena were " nothing but fraud and 
humbug." The one passed satisfactorily after years 
of study from the old to the new ; the other had not 
taken the first real step and loudly proclaimed that 
he knew all about it. 

If we would arrive at the truth then in this psy- 
chic problem, let us remember the psychologic work- 
ings of our minds, let us understand our personal 
equations, let us take note of the besetting sins of 
our dogmatic, scientific, and materialistic biases, and 
let us give the truth its time and opportunity. 

" Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." 



AN EXPERIMENTAL TESTIMONY 



" It was very, very hard for Laura 
Bridgman and Helen Keller to 
grasp the thought that there was 
another world, that besides their 
world of touch and smell and taste, 
there was a world of sound and 
sight far greater than their world 
and that interpenetrated their own. 
And it was a complicated matter for 
friends to make themselves known, 
to communicate with these unfortu- 
nates, to enter their world." 

" Proofs of Life After Death." 



CHAPTER I 

A PSYCHIC BRIDGING OF THE CHASM, 
MAY 22, 1911 

I will preface this account by stating that I did 
not act without knowledge and that I had good and 
experienced counsel in my psychic venture. As I 
look back upon it at this time, after the diligent study 
of several years since in psychic matters and some 
degree of experience, it seems I could not have done 
better. How far I was guided by spirit friends I 
cannot say, but I was expected, and the way to " the 
gates ajar" opened step by step in an orderly man- 
ner. We had good precedent and sympathetic coun- 
sel to favor us. And our various conversations with 
Miss Manning, the writer of " Both Sides of the 
Veil," and Dr. James H. Hyslop, and Miss Lillian 
Whiting, the well-known author and a friend of the 
psychic, Mrs. Chenoweth, helped to prepare and 
establish our ways. Miss Manning had been associ- 
ated with Professor William James in his psychic 
studies and interviews with Mrs. Piper, and was 
thereby won over from a state of doubt to a " faith 
in human survival in a spiritual order which contin- 
ues the visible order." While to Dr. Hyslop, our 
psychic was well known, and her gift of clear me- 
diumship he has made use of for several years in his 
psychic work and studies. 

I also further learned of the high esteem in which 

255 



256 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

the powers of this psychic were held through the re- 
markable spirit messages received by Prof. Hiram' 
Corson, LL.D., Litt.D., formerly of the department 
of English Literature in Cornell University. I 
might add that Prof, and Mrs. Corson were ac- 
quainted with and had literary connection with the 
poets, Browning, Tennyson, Whitman, Longfellow, 
etc., and the inspiring communications received 
through this mediumship from these personalities 
seem altogether worthy of their reputed source. 

THE INCURABLY SUSPICIOUS 

" And their words seemed to them as idle tales." 

Luke 24:11. 

It hardly seems necessary to add that I was an 
utter stranger to the psychic in every sense and 
never saw her till the hour appointed for the sitting, 
when she was in trance condition. If there are those 
whose minds are incurably suspicious in these mat- 
ters and possibly also invincibly ignorant, we cer- 
tainly have not the time to argue the case further 
here. Their only hope is to find out that proof 
here as everywhere else has its subjective aspect and 
responsibility as well as objective. Every soul must 
bear the burden of its own responsibility to the truth. 
There may be those who are worthy of confidence 
among psychic students and among such as possess 
the noble and prophetic gift of mediumship as well 
as among the skeptical materialists and dogmatists. 

On the memorial tablet of Mr. Myers was in- 
scribed this line in Greek, " Striving to win his soul's 
and comrades' homeward way." Such an effort on 
the part of the devoted psychic researcher and the 




WALTER LUCIEN GRAVES 
Junior year, Amherst College 



MAY 22, 1911 257 

psychic will be found in due time, when the fogs of 
prejudice and ignorance have cleared away, to have 
been one of the greatest and most far-reaching efforts 
of the human mind. " Now concerning spiritual 
gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." 

At this first psychic interview, I took notes of all 
important points, and directly on my return to my 
room I wrote out my notes in connected form. At 
the subsequent sittings, I was fully prepared and 
took full notes on the spot. 

A WORD ON THE SITUATION 
To the uninitiated, a clear conception of the trance 
situation and interview needs to be kept in mind, and 
I may be excused if " I stir up your pure minds by 
way of remembrance." A genuine sitting indicates 
and demands usually four distinct parties — the in- 
quirer or interviewer, the psychic or medium (who 
in trance is more or less detached in spirit body from 
the physical), the control or spirit interpreter (who 
is in partial possession or control of the physical 
organism of the psychic), and the spirit communi- 
cator. The control is markedly differentiated from 
the psychic in the same way one individuality every- 
where differs from another. The control has been 
known to speak in a native language of which the 
psychic was entirely ignorant, and I have myself 
had opportunity to hear a case of this kind. In this 
case, Prof. Corson wrote of the control, " She had a 
voice of great charm." 

" HE IS SO EAGER TO COMMUNICATE " 
At the sitting of May 22, the control expressed 
herself with much fullness and in good terms, and 



258 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

was sympathetic and genial, seeking to put us at 
ease. The conversation, which lasted for an hour 
and more, was intensely absorbing, it had some strik- 
ing evidential aspects, and it brought a sense of as- 
surance not to be gainsaid. " It helped to put us on 
our feet." 

Very soon the control called attention to an elderly 
woman whom she saw, and then to a young man who 
was full of life and energy, and had great eagerness 
of spirit. 

" He is so eager to communicate," she said. 

She said he had been studying, and was full of 
plans for the future. She dwelt upon his planning 
and his aspiring spirit. 

" He has a very good face. . . . He has such 
clear eyes, and such a straightforward look, and he 
looks straight at you. 

66 The elderly woman has a sense of proprietorship 
in the young man ; she feels she has a certain owner- 
ship, and the elderly woman is your mother. The 
friends say, ' We are all glad to have him with us. 
It is a joy to us to have his young, radiant spirit 
with us. 



5 5? 



Then she spoke of the surprise which came to the 
young man in the passing on : " It was a surprise 
to him, it was so sudden." 

At a subsequent sitting in October, I asked the 
control if the surprise was very great to Walter 
in the passing over. And she replied softly, 
" Yes." 

She said the body was carried away, some way to 
the home. (It was a journey of one hundred miles 
and more.) There was same one bending over the 



MAY 22, 1911 259 

body. . . . She added, he did not fully realize that 
he could not return to the body till he felt the grief 
and desolation in the heart of his mother. But the 
tragedy which was so great for us, was not near so 
much a tragedy to him. At another sitting, Walter 
gave me to understand that the whole affair of the 
accident was like a dream to him. 

He felt we made too much of his death, as though 
no one ever died before. " This feeling was from a 
certain sense of modesty. It is his way. But he is 
appreciative of all that has been done." The con- 
trol spoke of the sorrow and sense of loss in the 
community. There was a universal note of sorrow 
and bereavement in the place where he lived at the 
time of the tragedy. He was conscious of what was 
going on at the time. 

She added that we, that is M and I, live apart 

and are separated in place. And the young man is 
back and forth from one to the other. He is not 
limited as in body. 

The control then said that she saw me and another 
person, a woman alive, a lady still in the body. This 
is the mother. And it was added, " He thinks a 
great deal of his mother." He makes her feel that 
he is with her. " I am there many times when she 
does not know." He wants us to go on talking 
about him, and just feel that he is there. 

" I want to tell them how much I care for them, 
and how sorry I was to leave them." 

The control then dwelt upon the intimacy between 
the two brothers. There was so much of comrade- 
ship, and they were in such beautiful accord. 
Rarely are two brothers so attached. 



260 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

FIRST ATTEMPT AT REFLECTING SYMBOLS AND 
PICTURES THROUGH THE MEDIUMISTIC LENS 

At this stage, Walter attempted a few particular 
points in the evidential line, and for which we found 
later he had taken counsel over there. He had stud- 
ied evidence at the Law School, and this he found a 
help to him. 

The control asked - — " Does his name begin with 
G? His finger traced the letter." 

I replied, " Yes." 

" Do you know anything about a watch ? " was 
then asked. 

I said it was safe at home. She said he knew it. 

W had a gold watch as also his brother, gifts 

from a friend (E V ) on their graduation 

from Amherst College, 1908. 

Walter also got through correctly at this point 
the initials of his brother, etc., the several familiar 
pet names we used in the family, and indicated recog- 
nizably the name of his street in Cambridge (Mellen). 

Then the control gave us a few mental pictures as 
they were impressed upon her mind by Walter. She 
saw Walter going to the room of another student, 
and they stretched out their long legs in their chairs 
and looked so happy. She said the young man's 
name was " Fred." 

This had no meaning to me at the time, but M 

told me afterwards it was " Fred S." and was a true 
incident. 

I can only refer in few words to a camp picture 
that followed, and that was most impressive at the 
time. There was a place where the control saw 
water. There was a lot of boys there, and he 



MAY 22, 1911 261 

(the spirit communicator) was looking after them. 

Walter spent the summers of 1909 and 1910 at 
Camp Wyanoke, Lake Winnepesaukee, N. H., as 
councilor in a camp of boys. 

The control also described a valise or suit-case full 
of things sacred. 

Over in the rooms in Cambridge, W 's suitcase 

had been packed with his more personal effects, which 
I took home with me next day. 

Reference was made to how Walter used to like to 
take walks — a striking characteristic. 

He kept a pretty strict account of money ; he 
wanted to be independent and help himself. 

He would like to bring us out into a brighter life, 
out of our sadness and depression. 

(The root of our trouble, no doubt, after the first 
shock of bereavement, is our lack of vision and sense 
of reality. The spirit life is not at all real to us, 
and it seems as though we had lost all.) 

A closing remark from the control was : " God 
never sent him into our lives here but to draw us on 
into his life." 

And our closing comment is : What the control 
said about Walter's personal traits, his straightfor- 
wardness and aspiration, his studying, his planning 
and economy, the tragedy of his sudden death, the 
note of sorrow, the comradeship of the brothers, and 
the mental pictures with details were all vividly true. 

A NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN TRAIN 
EXPERIENCE 

Next in order to this account comes the supplemen- 
tary experience of the following day, which to my 



262 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

mind will always be convincingly and thoroughly con- 
firmatory of the interview I have given. On my re- 
turn home the next morning, I had an overwhelming 
sense of Walter's presence with me. We have had 
such evidences before and since, many of them, but 
now the dear boy impressed himself upon me in a 
most convincing manner. I cannot express in words 
the sense I had of Walter's presence with me on the 
train ride from Boston to Westfield. This experience 
was so vivid that I wrote an account of it at the 
South Station and on the train, which I reproduce 
here in good part : 

" South Station, Middlesex Bench, 

May 23, 1911. 
" I have a wonderful sense of Walter's presence with 
me this morning, as I am about to take the train for 
home. He comforts and assures me wonderfully. 
While eating breakfast in the railroad restaurant, I was 
impressed deeply with the sense of Walters nearness. " 

" On the train. 
" I have been having an overwhelming sense of the 
presence of Walter. He seems to be trying to express 
his gratitude and appreciation for what I have done and 

for the way I arranged to bring M and myself into 

communication with him. Walter is with me as I am 
riding here on the train back home. It may be incom- 
municable to others, but it is perfectly clear and over- 
whelmingly assuring to me. I feel it would be unrea- 
sonable to ask for more. My heart is full of content 
and sweet conviction. No words can express this sense 
of spirit communion. If Walter were here in the flesh 
on the seat beside me, I could hardly have such a sense 
of inner and close fellowship with him as I now ex- 



MAY 22, 1911 263 

perience. Dear Walter is unmistakably with me. My 
experience this morning in the South Station and on the 
train is immensely confirmatory of what we heard and 
received yesterday at our psychic interview/' 

A CRITICAL PSYCHIC ESTIMATE 

I annex to this account by way of making it more 
complete a communication which I received from the 
author of " Both Sides of the Veil " in reply to a note 
of inquiry from me of May 26. I wrote that I might 
obtain a critical estimate from one who had had con- 
siderable experience in matters psychic, and was as- 
sociated with Prof. James in the Piper case. 

" From what you say I should judge that the sitting 
was a remarkably good one, as sittings go. It appears 
that all the statements made by Sunbeam, mentioned 
by you, were correct, with the possible exception that 
she thought she saw a woman bending over the body, 
whereas it was you — a trifling inaccuracy. I do not 
think that she pretends to give many names, but it 
seems that the initials given were all of them right. 
Of course some of the statements were general, and 
might be applicable to almost any relationship — such 
as the sorrow felt by the family, etc., but on the other 
hand, other statements were specially pertinent to the 
actual case. It seems to me that the reference to the 
comradeship between the two brothers was a very good 
test, since so often in real life quite the contrary is the 
case. And the reference to the place where the water 
was, the boys, and the young man's care of them, 
was another very good point in the reading. Each 
thinker must be his own judge as to what these phe- 
nomena are, and how they occur, but I feel very strongly 
and practically believe that ' Sunbeam ' is a veritable 
discarnate being, and that we are actually in communi- 



264 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

cation, more or less clear and directly, with our friends 
in the other life. There is no psychic with whom I have 
had experience who makes me feel that my friends are 
actually speaking so much as does Mrs. Piper. But we 
all know that light passing through any medium must 
be more or less refracted and distorted, and I presume 
the same is true of spirit light. Still I believe it is 
the light just the same that is shining down upon us, 
and trying to clarify for us the density of our material 
constitutions. I think ' Sunbeam ' is a control who 
sees the situation, the relationship and the personalities 
clearly. 

" And now what you say about the overwhelming 
sense of the presence of your son on the train-ride 
home interests me almost more than any other part of 
your letter. It is not every one who can feel spiritual 
presence so strongly. Such experiences as these, added 
to what we get through investigation, are most convinc- 
ing. . . . 

" Very sincerely, 

" Anne Manning Robbins." 



CHAPTER II 

REPORT OF SECOND SITTING, 
OCTOBER 7, 1911 

This approach to the world unseen through the 
psychic intermediary was one of the most wonderful 
experiences in my life. I was better prepared than 
before, and also Walter was better prepared and ex- 
pecting me. We did not premeditate special tests, 
but the personal touches and the intensely personal 
atmosphere of the whole sitting, and the beautiful ac- 
count Walter gave of his new life, carried a deep 
conviction and left no questioning. The whole con- 
versation was natural and heart to heart, and as 
I wrote afterwards, it was Walter through and 
through. We have had abundance of tests, but it 
seems to me that what brings deepest conviction and 
contentment in a psychic communication like this is 
the tender personal element. The whole sitting was 
a religious experience of the highest kind. As soon 
as I was seated, the control at once began, and I took 
the following notes very carefully as the control in- 
terpreted and dictated. 

" EAGER TO TELL OF THE WONDERFUL LIFE " 

" I have seen your boy ever so many times since 

you were here. And I have always found him happy 

and full of courage, and with an understanding of the 

possibilities of his approach to you. He seeks you, 

265 



266 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

because he is eager to tell you of the wonderful life 
that is his now. And many times when you are alone,' 
and it seems as if you could put out your hand and 
touch him, it is true he is there. He has such a ten- 
der way. And he thanks you for all the teaching 
you gave him, which helps him to be patient." 
[Walter refers here to some psychic talks I had with 
him and his brother the summer of 1908. Walter 
was not prepared then to accept definite conclusions 
favoring spirit phenomena.] " It is easier for him 
to grasp it for having talked with you. It was not 
entirely an unknown subject to him." 

GOD'S WAY OF SPEAKING TO THE ACHING 

HEART 

At this point the control passes from interpreta- 
tion to dictation, giving Walter's exact words. She 
passes easily from one method of speech to the other, 
now interpreting in her own words, and again dictat- 
ing in exact words of spirit communicator. Walter 
says: 

" I went immediately to the people in the spirit 
world who had made these matters a life study and 
work, and I talked with them about it, and so I knew 
that many of these experiences were true and real 
and helpful. It is God's way of speaking to the ach- 
ing heart. Psychic phenomena are not enough, but 
you must look beyond that and find God's spirit be- 
hind it. I have been thinking of all the things that 
I could say to you that would help you to understand 
my attitude and my study of these things. I am not 
lost in the mystery of occultism. I am living in the 
light of the revealed truth of spirit communion. I 



OCTOBER 7, 1911 267 

wish I could make it perfectly plain to all those I 
love." 

Control : " He is happy to think that you have 
this receptive power." 

"You reason it out all right, Dad." ["He 
laughed when he said that," the control added.] 

The control continues : " He often goes to his 
brother, and tries to help him in his problems " ; and 
then she gives Walter's words : 

" He is working so hard to get his degree that he 
doesn't have time to think of these things. . . . We 
planned so many things together, I can't forget them, 
or substitute the new experiences for those we hoped 
to have." 

The control remarks : " He is very bright. Wal- 
ter is a splendid boy to have in the spirit world. It 
is beautiful to have a son in the other life. It is like 
having a beautiful hand to put in your own. The 
other world is a wonderland. At the same time Wal- 
ter doesn't lose one particle of interest in what is 
going on among his friends." 

Here W continues with some account of the 

spirit world and his life over there : 

" All that is lovely and true and expressive lives 
in this life with the same vitality, like flowers, and 
music, and all the scientific discoveries ; all these 
things are a part of our life in the spirit. The touch 
of a baby finger, the smile on an old man's face, will 
bring the same thrill of rapture in this life as in your 
life. And that goes to prove that we are human 
beings. Father dear, we are clothed with bodies, and 
we know each other by form, and when you come over 
here you will see the same old Walter, and you will 



268 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

know him by the light in his eyes and the grasp of 
his hand." [Walter had a very hearty hand grasp.]- 
" This is the happiest moment I have had for a long 
time. It seems as though we are having one of our 
talks out." [We had many talks, and often in walk- 
ing down " Trumble Lane," about plans for the fu- 
ture.] 

The control interjected here: "Walter has un- 
usual capacity. He seems to have a reasoning power 
that belongs to a brain of maturity and experience." 
(" Now don't say too much in my favor," the control 
smilingly said was Walter's comment. ) " He 
grasped the whole situation in the spirit life with won- 
derful quickness and clearness." 

" THE HOME OVER THERE " AND THE SWEET 
HOME INFLUENCE 

" There is a lady with him, his grandmother, and 
she took him when he first came over and cared for 
him, and told him what had happened. And this 
grandmother put round him a sweet home influence, 
so that he didn't feel like a wanderer, but had the 
beautiful home element round him which he so much 
needed. She it was who first told him that it was 
perfectly possible for him to see the ones he loved 
and had left, and with her as his attendant he went 
at once to your home. Then he was at peace, be- 
cause he could see, and he knew it was only a question 
of time when he would be able to express his 
knowledge and give some word of his whereabouts. 
Your mother is a Christian woman, and whatever 
comes to her of beauty or love or tenderness, she al- 
ways thanks her Heavenly Father for it. She wants 



OCTOBER 7, 1911 269 

me to say to you : i I have not seen God any more 
definitely than I did when living, but I feel his spirit 
much more intimately, because many of the coarser 
and more material elements are left behind. I have 
much to be proud of ; God has blessed me in my chil- 
dren.' She is always proud of you when you preach. 
Sometimes she is right with you, w r hen you are trying 
to lead the people to a larger and broader under- 
standing of God's love. 

" Your father lives with your mother, and they 
have a home together. And your father wants me to 
say to you — ' Your Walter is the joy of my life, and 
puts me as an opponent and uses out his ideas with 
me just as he would with you. But he knows so much 
more than I do that I am pushed into a corner in 
almost the first sentence. But he wouldn't be quite 
happy unless he could argue it out ; the legal tendency 
is strong within him. And I generally subside, and 
admire him and feel proud that he is with us.' 



55 



A STRAIGHT TALK 

Here W resumes : " Sometimes when the old 

longing comes over me to see you and talk with you, 
I rush away from whatever I am doing here and seek 
your side, and feel happy just to be there with you. 
I am afraid, Pop, that I didn't always let you know 
how much I thought of you, and how much I appre- 
ciate the sacrifices you made for me that I might do 
what I wished with my life. And when I first came 
over, I had a great sense of disappointment that now 
it was all lost, all the sacrifices had been for nought, 
and the bright plans and hopes had died with me. 
And I had promised myself to do so many things for 



270 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

you when I got my career, and now all I can do is to 
tell you about those plans and hopes. But my^ 
grandma talked so lovely to me about it, and she said 
that all that was lost was the material care, and the 
hopes I had for giving you comfort and time to study 
and read as you wanted to. And she told me I could 
serve you in a thousand ways that would have been 
impossible in a successful legal career. The money 
I might have made and the reputation, but this heart- 
to-heart life and spirit understanding would not have 
been the same. You understand, don't you, Pop, 
how the material and physical things were what I 
wanted for you and Momsie and all of us? But that 
disappointment is all over now. And I am reconciled, 
and I am making home conditions over here for you 
both, and when you come over you will find me in a 
home that is fitted to my taste for you both." 

" He sends Momsie all the love she can accept," the 
control adds. 

I omit several pages here as too personal for gen- 
eral interest. 

Do you remember my ride home next day on the 
train ? 

" I was there on the train, and wanted and tried 
to tell you how glad I was that you had been where I 
could communicate with you. And you knew it." 
This was my assuring answer. . . . 

Do you know that M and I still walk down 

Trumble Lane? You remember all our family walks 
down there? 

" A bit of a tear comes in his eye as you say that." 

The allusion could not but stir sweet memories in 
Walter's mind. But the reference to a tear may 



OCTOBER 7, 1911 271 

awaken surprise in the mind of one who has not given 
thought to the analogies between the two worlds. 
We soon learn that the earthly in many things has 
its counterpart in the spirit. 

We keep this matter of communication with you 
very quiet, I said. 

" You don't want them to think that you are grow- 
ing daffy," Walter said playfully. 

[" Daffy " was not in the control's vocabulary, and 
it made her think of daffodil. I said in substance 
it was a term that meant a little out of mind or fool- 
ish.] 

" It is up to us," Walter said, " to express and 
prove in such a practical and beneficent way spirit 
communication that they will be curious to know 
about it." 

I often meet him, your boy," the control said. 
Do you want to know where? I meet him the most 
at Psychic Research Headquarters in spirit land. 
Have you heard of Stainton Moses, Prof. Sidgewick, 
Dr. Hodgson, and Prof. James? They have a loca- 
tion for psychic research." At a later sitting in 
April, 1912, the control told us that Walter had made 
the acquaintance of Dr. Hodgson. 

About here I remarked that I had succeeded in 
taking notes so far of all our talk. 

" You are a dandy, Pop," Sunbeam smilingly said 
was Walter's comment. I bring this in for its human- 
ness, and I am devoutfully thankful, as spirit com- 
munication shows abundantly, that the other life is 
not robbed of all humanness and humor, as inherited 
ideas of death and utterly transcendent ideas of the 
future life would lead us to imply. 



a 



272 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

THE NATURAL AND PROGRESSIVE VIEW OF THE 
FUTURE LIFE VS. MEDIEVAL TRANSCENDENT- 
ALISM 

Tell me something of the religious life over there. 

" The religious life has very much more meaning to 
Walter over here," the control replied. 

I quoted the familiar Scripture " Wait on the 

Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen 
thine heart." 

" Walter says you had a way of taking the finest 
things in Scripture." 

Then Walter gave this direct word : " Why, 
somehow you come into such an attitude of awe and 
w onder at the power of God when you come over here ! 
And you are no sooner lost in that awe than you 
become conscious of a great and unspeakable love for 
the Author of all life who has so cared for you and 
made all these steps upward to fuller and more glori- 
ous expression of His love. This makes God seem 
nearer." 

There was some reference here to the conventional 
idea of heaven that has come down to us from medieval 
and apocalyptic times, and about the pictures of 
saints with harps sitting on clouds. 

" I agree with Mark Twain that it would be very 
tiresome, and the chances are the music would be all 
out of tune." (I strongly incline to think there is a 
reference here to a certain sea-captain's adventures in 
heaven by M. T in a magazine at our home.) 

W added : " Forgive me, Dad, I do not seek 

out the religious enthusiasts. I seek those who give 
me something to think of and something to do." 



OCTOBER 7, 1911 273 

I could say nothing against this, for it would be 
my own course. 

I quote here from " Interwoven " : " In border- 
land there are churches with the old names, as Bap- 
tist or Methodist or Catholic, and the old forms are 
carried on as usual. But soon there comes the ridicu- 
lous view of it all, for no one finds a hell, and they 
find heaven is reached more by kind deeds and useful 
labor than by baptism or by communion or any other 
ceremony." 

All things indicate that we take just ourselves over 
in the great transition. And that means that we take 
the long-cherished habits of earth and our religious 
ideas and misconceptions. If our minds still run to 
the Old Testament conception of Deity, we may look 
for " the beatific vision," but really find that we see 
God no more clearly than on the earth plane except 
as He is revealed more clearly in His works and in 
His people over there. The materialist has been 
known to maintain that he has not passed through 
death and that his spirit friends are illusory; the 
Advent may be surprised to find himself conscious and 
clothed upon and still look for some revolutionary 
manifestation of Christ; and the Catholic looks 
around for purgatory. If there is unity in the uni- 
verse, then life is a process of growth and education 
and emancipation over there as here. 

SPIRIT OBJECTIVITIES 

Does the world over there seem to you as much 
reality and as objective as the earthly world? 

" Of course it is objective," the control replied. 



274 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

And with hands clasped together, she said impres- 
sively — " It is wonderful." 

Walter added : " I've got a lot of places already 
picked out that I want you to see. You know how I 
always liked to get upon top of a hill and get a good 
view way off, and I want you to climb some little hills 
over here, and we will have some views that will make 
you surrender to the beauty of this life." 

I have read of houses over there, and of flowers, 
and pictures. Are these real to you ? 

" Just as real as anything you have and handle, 
and even more so." [I think this was from the con- 
trol.] 

Do they have books over there or something like 
books ? 

" You wait, Dad, till you come over here, and you 
shall have a library so big that it will take a thousand 
years to read it through." 

Somehow there was a reference to the stars. " He 
loves the stars himself, and loves to have you look at 
them too." Walter knew of the interest his mother 
and I had in tracing out the constellations, and in 
Gilmanton Academy, N. H., had taken under me the 
course in " Young's Lessons in Astronomy." It came 
to me afterwards that a few weeks before this sitting 
on Monday evening, September 18, we traced out con- 
stellations. 

The control continued : " Each planet has round 
it a spiritual belt, and that is the spirit world. And 
you look off to the other planets just the same as you 
do here, only you see the spirit part." 

I put the question : Have you made new acquaint- 
ances over there? 



OCTOBER 7, 1911 275 

The control replied for W , " Yes, indeed." 

Then she asked, " Have you a friend over here 
whose name begins with H? " And she added almost 
at once that he was a brother to me, and he went 
quickly. [This was true ; he passed out suddenly in 
1893.] " He is with your mother. He always had 
an awfully good heart." And Walter added : " I 
wanted to tell you about him, Dad." The control 
tried to get the name through, and made out with 
some difficulty the letters H — A — R — T [which 
was correct so far, but as time was about up, I sug- 
gested we pass on]. She then referred to a sister 
whom she saw, who died in infancy but was now a 
woman. 

I here read to Walter an account of the accident 
as given by an eye-witness. " In a twinkling the 
engine was past, and the body lay there." I also re- 
ferred to our memorial and the inscription. The con- 
trol at once said that Walter was especially pleased 
with "Nair" and " Love Bridges All Chasms." 
(" Nair " was the familiar home name.) 

A word as to the control. At the first sitting, in 
response to some inquiry, the control said her name 
was " Sunbeam." But there was a dignity blended 
with sweetness in the manner of reply as though I 
might object to the name as having a fake sound. 
" Sunbeam " is the rendering of an Indian name, the 
name she bore in the earth life. The instinct of the 
guide which has been developed in the Indian by 
centuries of experience, we may well suppose also fits 
them for guides and media in the spirit world. One 
spirit communicator said of this control : " It has 
been so easy for us to express through her, and her 



276 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

charm is in her obedience." She is a clear and ex- 
pressive interpreter, and the sitter learns to see the 
force of Prof. Hyslop's remark that this control is a 
visuel, for she interprets much by mental pictures as 
they are impressed upon her mind by the spirit com- 
municator. She impresses the sitter as a beautiful 
character and as bringing something of the atmos- 
phere of the other world. 

I have rarely had such a sense of religious exalta- 
tion as at the close of this interview, the whole sitting, 
as I have said, was a religious experience of the high- 
est order. " Behold, a door was opened in heaven " 
(Revelation 4:1) would be the appropriate text to 
describe my feelings and the illumination that came 
to me. I was fully conscious that I had been in very 
close touch and communion with the world unseen. 
The many tests and external proofs that have been 
given, and which have increased with the sittings, 
carry their conviction to the exacting reason, but it is 
the warm, personal atmosphere, as I have noted, that 
seals such an interview and makes it holy. Walter 
was simply there, and we were talking with one 
another heart to heart as in the former days. For 
some time after I had a sense of bewilderment, so 
strong had been my impressions. 



7 



CHAPTER III 

REPORT OF PSYCHIC INTERVIEW, 
APRIL 17, 1912 

Mrs. Graves was present with me at this sitting, 
which fact enlarged the field of communication in 
bringing us more messages of a personal nature. I 
had prepared myself carefully for this interview, as 
Walter very evidently had also. We learned that 
Walter had formed a spirit band, on the other side, of 
family relatives, and infused them with the desire " to 
have the satisfaction of the communicative light." 
The control greeted us with a smile of friendly recog- 
nition, and at once began. (The eyes of the psychic 
are closed, but the control sees with spirit vision. ) 

" THE GREAT JOY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF 
THIS LIFE" 

" There is so much eagerness on his part to say all 
that is in his heart for his mother and for you. He 
steps right over to her first, and stands by her with 
his face all illumined with love and joy and gratitude 
that she has come. Walter says : ' Every little while 
it comes over me that all the plans I made for you and 
Momsie were broken by my passing. But new plans 
and new hopes come with the new life.' He comes 
right to her and looks into her face and says : ' Do 
you think that if I have consciousness anywhere, I 

could be doing anything else but planning and work- 

277 



278 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

ing, and making all my days count for your happi- 
ness — you who did so much for me that I was never 
able to repay, and yet always planned I would? I 
want to bring this great joy of the knowledge of this 
life to you. It changes the whole face of creation, 
(" That is what he says," the control emphasized here 
to satisfy an inquiry of mine) and makes life and 
death seem entirely different from what I had previ- 
ously believed/ " 

I interjected here for greater confirmation — Does 
Walter hear me now as I speak? 

" He hears you now and hears you at home. You 
are the blind and the deaf one," the control replied. 

Walter continued : " One has to go over in order 
to know. And the explanation in books and journals 
such as you have been reading do not give as definite 
an idea of the life here as I would like you to have. 
I did not want to die, I wanted to live and take care 
of you both. And when I came to consciousness and 
found that it was all over, I just put my wits to work 
to see how much was true of these theories you had 
been interested in. And I found headquarters, and 
tried to make myself conversant with the methods of 
communication. I have studied harder and made 
more experiments in the time I have been over here 
than I did in any five years before I came. I am 
happy, so happy now at this moment that I hardly 
know how to tell you about it. You miss my letters 
so much, and I miss yours too, only I am able to see 
what is in your heart. But you have to take it for 
granted that I am loving you and working for you. 
If I could write a letter to you, just as I used to 
after I had been anywhere or had any special good 



APRIL 17, 1912 279 

time, and let you share in it just as I used to, I would 
feel there was no break. I wish (" half whisper in 
half fun," the control explained) I could take you 
both over here, and let you see how lovely the life is, 
but you are needed yet in the world. These very 
experiences help you to understand the agony of other 
fathers and mothers, and you may be able to help them 
and minister to the inner life." 

Walter went on : "I have added to my other pro- 
fession the art of preaching." [Tell Walter I am 
awfully glad to hear about this, I said.] The con- 
trol interpreted — " He has learned to tell people over 
there about God, through his experiences that have 
come through his passing. This draws him nearer 
to an understanding of God." 

I asked here: Do you think that the life and 
world over there correspond fairly well with the way 
in which you heard me present it? 

" The life over here is more real and tangible. It 
is not an unreal existence. It is full of experiences, 
and not everybody who comes over here perceives the 
truth immediately. ... I wish I had taken more 
stock in what you were trying to tell me. 

" I have often been in the home and have sat there 
with you evenings, sometimes when you were reading, 
sometimes when you were talking." [The allusion to 

reading is significant. Mrs. G had been reading 

history (Myers') to me through the winter and spring 
evenings.] " I find it so much easier to come to you 
in the home now than I did to run away from my 
duties when I was teaching or studying." [The allu- 
sion to teaching is also significant; Walter taught a 
year in Quincy High School, 1908-1909.] 



280 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 



MENTAL IMAGING OR SPIRIT IMPRESSIONS 

Hitherto in the sitting, Walter had been trying to 
bring us something of the great joy of the knowledge 
of the spirit world. Now he gives us a few mental 
pictures, and they naturally follow the allusion to 
teaching and studying. 

The control says : " Do you know anything about 
a place, it is more like a country place or village or 
small town? He shows me a picture of the place, 
where there are buildings grouped together like semi- 
nary buildings and faculty houses. And I see him 
walking there and in and out through some grounds. 
It is like a college." (Amherst.) " As he thinks it, 
I see it." The control speaks here as a visuel, and we 
have a hint of the power of spirit telepathy or mental 
impression. 

" Did he ever teach anywhere ? " The control 
added in substance : " I see him walking about with 
an air of authority as though he had responsibility. 
Where he taught was only a little way from here." 
(Quincy, Mass.) "He left that line of work and 
took up something else. He must have been con- 
nected with Harvard." Then she quoted Walter: 
" ' Then I left my career here to take up one on the 
other side.' He took up this life on the other side 
with the same energy that he left his teaching to push 
himself forward to take a better position by and by. 

" He used to take long walks with you. Just about 
this time of year, I see him walking off with you along 
a country road where I see a lot of trees, and looking 
down for something on the ground. Near this I see 
and hear water like a small stream, and then I see him 



APRIL 17, 1912 281 

pick up small flowers like violets, and he lays them on 
a table and Momsie puts them in a glass." This 
incident is a mental picture of our walks down 
Trumble Lane near the parsonage and to Trumble 
Brook that crossed the lane. 

"O THINK OF THE FRIENDS OVER THERE WHO 
BEFORE US THE JOURNEY HAVE TROD " 

At this point there is a change from the mental pic- 
tures to communications from my mother and other 
spirit friends present. 

" He " (Walter) " wants to talk about somebody 
with him. His grandmother is here. And she looks 
at you and then at the lady : — 

" ' What was loss to you was gain to us. Think 
of the years that I have been gone, and I had no op- 
portunity to say how much I love you both and wanted 
to help you both until this boy came and opened the 
door. He worries about the money, so much money 
spent for him that never came back, and he wants 
money put into your hands to help you for what you 
did. He talks about you two all the time. You 
would think there never was such another father and 
mother in the world like you two." 

" Another lady, a younger woman, stands right 
beside Walter's mother. She has been gone a long 
time to the spirit. She has a broad forehead, sort of 
round face, and pretty eyes. She went out after a 
little illness, not as quick as Walter did. Her illness 
was rather pathetic and sad. She is so close, she 
seems as though she belonged to Walter's mother. 
She is a relation to Momsie. She is a beautiful angel, 
and has a splendid influence for her. Walter is so 



282 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

pleased about it." (The control explains that they 
often speak of spirits as angels.) 

Mrs. G recognized this portrait with the iden- 
tifying detail as that of a young cousin and playmate 
who passed over some thirty-five years ago. 

" I see your father, and now I see another man who 
is your brother, and his name is Hartson. He smiles 
when I say so. There was a little kick of his foot " 
(as he got the name through) " that was his joy." 

At the previous sitting the control was able to 
interpret only the first syllable of the name, hence my 
brother's joy that now he was successful in getting 
the whole name through, and it came quickly. Psy- 
chic communication is very far indeed removed from 
the cheap conceptions often held by those who have 
given little or no serious thought and study to the 
problem, and it is removed also from the easy sim- 
plicity which the beginner might attach to it. 

The control continues : " I see her father, and 
he loves her, and would take her into his arms and let 
her cry it out on his shoulder. She would cry for 
joy, if she could only see it (the spirit world) as 
it is." 

" COME AND LET US REASON TOGETHER " 

The control interjected here suddenly — "I hear 
a name, Dolph." It was from Walter, she said. 
And the other name she could not make out clearly. 
She said, Moody, and then no, that was not it, but 
there was an oo sound in the name, and this she 
emphasized. Then followed this account: 

" He is a young man, and fair, has blue eyes, is 
not very stout, and is not quite as tall as Walter. 



APRIL 17, 1912 283 

He was somebody Walter knew, and was in college 

with Walter." He thought M would know 

about Dolph. 

We gave but little thought to this account at the 
time, and we could make nothing out of it. But on 

Friday, April 19, I asked M at his rooms in 

Cambridge if he knew a young man whose given name 
was Dolph and who was a fellow student at Amherst. 
He did not recall such a name at first. Then I asked 
him to look it up in the Amherst College Address 
List. He took the catalogue and ran over the names 
of the class to which he and Walter belonged. He 
soon exclaimed there was a Dolph L. Koomis whom he 
and Walter knew. The oo sound at once occurred 
to us, and our intense interest showed itself as we told 

M of this oo sound asserted by the control to be 

in the last name. I asked if this Dolph had blue eyes, 

and M replied, " Yes, he had blue eyes," and 

shortly he added that he had " unusually blue eyes, 

and light hair." Mrs. G and I knew nothing 

whatever of this fellow-student and it was a most 
interesting and impressive test for us all. At a 
second sitting we had on the following week, on my 
referring to this case and the happy surprise it gave 
us, Walter spoke of the eyes again as being almost as 
blue as forget-me-nots. Walter had evidently seized 
upon a fellow student somewhat known to both him 

and M but unknown to us, with a noticeable 

color of eye certainly fortunate to the possessor as a 
personal confirmation to us all. 

Shall we exercise our reason and common sense here 
and consider this effort as spirit intelligence exer- 
cised for a high purpose? Or was it deliberate, 



284 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

coolly-planned, subconscious and unconscious tapping 
of a general consciousness, through devious under- 
ground channels, by an independent ego who lurks as 
a Mephistopheles in our nature and in the way of 
fiendish deception and mockery of our highest hopes ? 
If one has an incurable repugnance to spirit, let him 
by all means find what consolation he can in this 
subterfuge of telepathic crookedness. 

The control went on in her description of the 
spirit friends present. I was not able to take full 
notes here, but she said in substance: "There is a 
woman present who is quite stout, with red face ; she 
has blue eyes, and gray hair, and there is a little ring 
on her finger." [I understood this as her earth ap- 
pearance.] " She is right beside your father. She 
seems like an aunt to you. She is so good-natured. 
I see a road where there are trees on each side, and it 
is curved, and I come to a good-sized, comfortable 
wooden house. The first thing you notice is there is 
such an air of hospitality, and there is plenty of 
everything and such a lot to eat. You feel that you 
are welcome. This aunt had a hard sickness, a 
struggle, and she was glad when she got over." 

The control said she saw the letter S, then she said 
tentatively " Susan " but remarked that the woman 
shook her head. Then almost immediately she got it 
clearly and said " Susannah." I then asked if Aunt 
remembered how we boys called her " Aunt Sukie," 
and the control said she laughed. I asked if that 
meant assent, and was told that it did. 

This was my Aunt Susannah B , my father's 

sister, whom I remember as a small boy, and who died 
after a lingering sickness with cancer. I recognize 



APRIL 17, 1912 285 

the road and the house. The road led from the 

home of Aunt S to the Graves' home place, 

where she was born and where my father lived. It 
wound some distance through the woods, and the 
large two-story house entertained many people, 
especially at religious gatherings. 

The control added there was another aunt present, 
and her name was " Sarah." I was surprised the 
name came through so quickly, and said: How did 
you know her name is Sarah? 

She replied, " She told me so ; she said so right 
off." 

One may suppose that the familiarity of this name 
helped its coming through so easily. This was my 
Aunt Sarah F , my father's oldest sister. 

Then my grandfather (Jacob Graves) was an- 
nounced. When my grandfather said a thing must 
be done, that was all there was to it. Then she gave 
a mental image. " I see a cemetery ; it is a small 
country burying-ground on a little hill." Then a 
moment later she said smilingly as the discovery came 
to her, that my grandfather had a double object in 
view ; he gave a mental picture of graves and his name 
is Graves, the graves in the cemetery he used as a 
symbol of the family name. She added that spirits 
sometimes communicate in this way of symbolism. 

The yard was laid out by Grandfather himself; 
it crowned a little hill, and was familiar to me as a 
boy, but the memorials had been removed and the yard 
disused many years, fifty or more years. Grand- 
father could hardly have given me a more suggestive 
picture of the old place than this of the Graves' 
graveyard. 



286 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

The control also saw an old lady, very old and 
much wrinkled. She was with Father, and was an 
aunt to him. " But," it was added, " the wrinkles 
are all gone now; this was her earth appearance." 

This must have been Aunt B , Father's maternal 

aunt, whom I saw often as a boy, and she was then 
" very old and much wrinkled." 

In that able work, Delanne's " Evidence for a Fu- 
ture Life," it is shown that " the spirit preserves or 
can reassume in space the form it had on earth. It 
is reproduced with extraordinary fidelity in such a 
way that it can be recognized." 

" We can, when we please, assume the old bodies 
or their spiritual counterparts, as we can assume our 
old clothes, for purposes of identification." So 
subtle is the power of thought in that subtile world. 



CHAPTER IV 

INTERVIEW THE WEEK FOLLOWING, 
APRIL 23, 1912 

" WALTER OPENS THE DOOR WIDE " 

At first there was a little talk about our com- 
municating. It is evident that Walter had perfected 
himself over there in a careful manner with this end 
in view, and that he had made fine progress and had 
enlisted the interest and cooperation of many of our 
family friends in the spirit. The control said: 
" Walter has done better than most spirits do. He 
knows Dr. Hodgson. They discuss these things." 
[Tell Walter I am delighted to hear it, I said.] 
" Walter has talked to all your friends, and got them 
into this attitude of mind where they desire to com- 
municate and where they want to do as he says. He 
is like a prompter. He wants them to have the satis- 
faction of the communicative light, the intercommun- 
ion of spirit. They had no opportunity. Walter 
opens the door wide, and has the happiest time you 
ever knew." 

" HE WALKED WITH YOU " 

Did Walter know where we were on the inter- 
vening Sunday (April 21) and about our doings? I 
give the mental picture that followed, and for which 

Walter did not have time to prepare himself, but at 

287 



288 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

once imaged the events of the day in which we were 
concerned, and the visuel saw them and gave them 
to us. 

The control began : " He shows a picture. There 
is a group of friends, of his and yours, all together. 
I get a picture of a table, and food and eating, and 
I hear talk. I see in moving pictures. There is 
another place where there are more people, and much 
that was interesting to Walter." 

Walter then speaks of the preaching and remarks : 
" The man was pretty progressive and so are you." 
The subject was a disaster at sea, and referring to 

those who went down W added : " I was not so 

much interested in the wealth as in the caliber of the 
men." And they were concerned in it on the spirit 
side, especially on account of Mr. Stead. Why, I 
said, I did not know that Mr. Stead was there or that 
he went down. " Walter thinks so," the control 
replied. 

The news came early on our trip of the great dis- 
aster of the sinking of the Titanic, and I had time to 
read about it only in a general way. It seemed a 
strange incident that I should first learn of the pass- 
ing over in this way of Mr. Stead, the noted English 
writer and psychic investigator, from Walter on the 
other side. The control added : " You must have 
gone somewhere to walk Sunday. I see trees and 
sky and flowers. Walter shows the picture. He 
walked with you." 

Now to comment on this moving picture in a few 
words : I will say it is an outline in a few strokes 
accurately drawn of our Sunday in Boston and Cam- 



APRIL 23, 1912 289 

bridge, April 31. We walked to the Old South 
Church that morning across the Public Garden and 
along Commonwealth Avenue. At the service, Dr. 
Gordon preached on the loss of the Titanic, and at 
the close the large congregation sang in moving 
fashion, " Nearer My God to Thee." In the after- 
noon, we took dinner in Cambridge with M and 

C and two friends. I certainly do not question 

that our dear boy was with us that Sunday, on our 
walk, at the church service, and in our family 
gathering. 

" Millions of spiritual beings walk the earth, 
Both when we wake and when we sleep/' 

I will bring in here another brief incident which 
naturally follows the foregoing. I asked if Walter 
knew of anything that had taken place of late in the 

home of M and C . The reply was in brief 

as follows: 

" TWO LITTLE FEET " 

" Something has brought a joy to them both. 
There is some addition, and they will have to make 
changes on account of what has happened and will 
happen. I see a lot of things around. They have 
not got a baby, have they? I seem to see two little 
feet. Walter laughs and means assent. There are 
little feet kicking up, and they are too cunning for 
anything." I inquired if Walter could give the 
name. And at once the control said, " Is there a W 
in baby's name? " And slowly she repeated, "A — 
L — T — E — R. It is Walter, too," she said; 
the baby is named for him." 



u 



290 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

A LETTER FROM THE WORLD OF SPIRIT 

Next in this group order I give Walter's beautiful 

message to his brother M . " Take this to 

M for him," the control said : 

" How can I tell you how much I long to be with 
you in the old way sometimes, and yet how glad and 
happy I am that you are beginning to feel more 
reconciled to my going, and can find comfort in the 
assurance that I am alive and interested in every- 
thing you do. My plans were not alone for Father 
and Mother, but together we planned what we would 
do when you got your degree and I mine. And now 
you are most through. And I know you understand 
a little bit of my fun when I tell you — I took my 
degree in a somewhat too summary fashion. But I 
entered at once on a good practice, as you will see. 
No lack of work, no loss of time in looking for clients, 
for I at once found I must work to save our father 
and mother from despair. And now we are all happy 
together. Please do not think of me as far away, or 
silent, or disinterested. Heaven would not be heaven 
unless I could know how my dear ones fare. . . . 
Oh, such love I send ! I must not take any more time 
from Dad." (" He laughs when he says that," 
added Sunbeam; it was a characteristic little way of 
Walter's.) 

The control made an interesting remark here: 
" When in spirit I talk with Walter as we do, but 
here I am in a denser atmosphere. And the trouble 
is to make sounds carry down through and pictures 
go down through." 



APRIL 23, 1912 291 

FAMILIAR PORTRAITS 

There were a few other communications from new 
ones. " I see a new one, another man. I see your 
father, and your mother, and Grandfather Graves and 
Grandmother Graves, and this little group of women, 
family connections. I see two or three uncles, some 
of each family. The new man stands beside Momsie, 
but is not her father. He is quite tall, nice looking, 
rather dark eyes and dark hair, and has a very 
straightforward manner. I think he is her uncle. 
The name begins with C," and then quickly she added 
that he was " Uncle Charles." " He puts his hands 
on her shoulders and says : 6 1 want to give strength 
to you, and to be counted among those who would be 
of use to you in your investigations.' " 

Then the control referred to a woman present: 
" She is quite an old lady, short and plump, a little 
dumpling woman, very active and efficient. She keeps 
looking up at your boy, and he laughs and she laughs. 
He never knew her until he went away ; he found her 
in the ' family pew,' he says." [I interjected, re- 
ferring to the expression — That is awfully good, I 
am glad there is some humor over there.] " She has 
been over quite a long time ; she is closer to M. [Mrs. 

G ] than to you." We both recognized this as a 

good description of Aunt S. L on Mrs. Graves' 

side, who passed over in 1890. 

The control called attention to another woman 
present, and described the impression she received. 
" I see an old-fashioned house, and an old-fashioned 
room in it. There is a big wheel like an old-fashioned 
spinning wheel. There are country conditions 



292 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

around her. It seems she was either visiting or living 

there, when she knew M." [Mrs. G ]. This 

seemed to us both a very clear reference to Mrs. 

G 's step-grandmother, whom we both knew. It 

was a characteristic picture the pastures and 

fields around the house, and Grandmother D 

spinning yarn. In short, these three friends in the 
spirit who unexpectedly greeted us in this way were 

known to us both, and especially to Mrs. G , and 

we pronounce these portraitures as faithful and even 

vivid. I hardly need add that W got through 

the mental pictures in strikingly accurate shape. 

A STRAIN OF MUSIC 

Near the close of the sitting there came through 
this sentence from our dear boy, which lingers with 
us like a haunting strain of music. The control was 
saying that his room was always ready for him when 
he came home. " I come there now and I go into the 
house and say : ' I am here, Momsie dear ; I don't 
make an imprint on the bed, or any noise, but I am 
here with you and nearer than ever in life, and just 
as happy as when I used to come home and say, " Oh, 
isn't it good to get back home again ! " ' " 

Then follows a deep personal family talk out of 
place here, but inexpressibly revealing of Walter's 
presence. At the last I speak of the glorious pros- 
pect of progress and service before us all. 

Don't you think these two words, progress and 
service sum it all up? 

" Progress and service," Sunbeam repeated im- 
pressively. 

Walter then closed this delightful interview : " It 



APRIL 23, 1912 293 

isn't alone your reading and your study and your 
grasp of this wonderful truth that has sustained you 
all, but it is because I have been right there with you, 
and you couldn't feel the desolation while I was 
there." I consider this a wonderfully revealing 
statement. 



CHAPTER V 

REPORT OF SITTING, OCTOBER 8, 1912 

The conditions seemed to be harmonious and the 
communications were clear. 

" THE OLD SENSE OF SEPARATION GONE " 

After a pleasant greeting, the control began: 
" The first thing the boy walks right over beside you, 
puts his hand on your shoulder, and with a smile 
says: ' Dear Pop and Momsie, I have greater joy 
than ever before in coming to you to-day. The old 
sense of separation is gone, and at this moment I feel 
only peace and satisfaction. I have been studying 
and working to know this beautiful truth of spirit 
communication. For how could we have managed to 
get through these long months if you hadn't made it 
possible for me to speak to you? O dear Pop, so 
many times I think of that first day when I tried to 
let you know that I was still conscious of you and 
could see you. You know I was confident that you 
would understand if I had conscious existence any- 
where, that I would have the same old love that I had 
always been talking about. But that was not quite 

enough for me, and when you and M came, and 

I was able to get even a little word through to you, 
I felt so much better than I had at any moment after 

the accident.' " 

294 



OCTOBER 8, 1912 295 

" WAKING FROM A TROUBLED SLEEP " 

" Sometimes you have wondered, and Momsie, if I 
suffered before I died. I have to laugh when I say 
died, for I couldn't realize that death had anything 
to do with me." [That is glorious, I said.] " And 
I want to tell you that I had no pain, no sense of 
horror, and not even a fear crossed my mind. They 
tell me over here that I lost hold of the body at the 
first blow, but lived on half mechanically until the 
body refused to work any longer. The first thing I 
remember was waking as from a sleep, as if I had been 
in a troubled sleep, and I saw faces all about me, and 
I asked what had happened. And Grandma was 
there, and put her hand on my head, and there were 
tears in her eyes just as real as the tears in yours, as 
she told me what occurred. But she added almost 
in the same sentence that I could see you, and know 
all about you just the same, because she had been 
able to do so. From that moment I never had the 
least doubt of the possibility of my communicating 
with you. I waited for your coming with the same 
assurance that I would wait in the station for you to 
come on the train. Right here, I want to say that 
Grandmother's tears were not for her own sorrow, but 
for yours. And when I spoke of my spoiled plans, 
plans that involved the dearest, those who loved as 
no family ever loved before, she chided me and said 
new and better plans would come to my mind. And 
so they have. One of them is that I may make it so 
plain to you that no separation can come to the 
spiritually united, that all sorrow and pain will be 
forever taken away from you two. 



296 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" O THINK OF THE HOME OVER THERE " 

" If I could have my way, I would snatch you and 
Momsie right out together some day like the prophet 
of old. And the first thing you would know, you 
would find yourselves established in the home I am 
preparing for you. I have seen you thinking and 
wondering what kind of home I live in, and so I 
wanted to tell you a little about it to-day. It is a 
real place, just as real, Dad, as any house you ever 
saw. And I have already begun to plan for a library, 
where you can sit and read and read and read, while 
Momsie and I go off and take a look at some of the 
beauties of the world over here. She won't have to 
see that the table is filled with all kinds of food to 
fill up three hungry men. I am going to see that she 
has her picnic over here and we take care of things." 
(" This is a bit of fun," the control puts in.) " If 
I had stayed here, and had a home of my own with a 
whole lot of children as I always wanted, and some 
day you and Pop had gone away, there would have 
been the same sense of separation, and worse to bear 
because I am afraid I wouldn't have had the courage 
or known how to establish this relation as you have 
done for me. Now nothing can ever separate us. 
It is a different way I am taking care of you than I 
planned, but it is just as real, and it has a future. 

M is happy in his life and his new home, and he 

will go on with ties and associations that will help 
him into full expression of his powers. I know he 
misses me, and I know he often wishes he could talk 
with me or get a letter in the old fashion." . . . 



OCTOBER 8, 1912 297 

SPIRIT WELCOME 

" I have wanted to tell you how good all these 
people are, those I never knew but who belong to you, 
and who seem to take me right into their home and 
heart for your sakes, because I was your son. 
Grandma is just as dear as can be, and she never 
tries to take Momsie's place. She says there is only 
one mother for a boy, and she is quite content to be 
grandmother. She wouldn't want you to have any 
mother but her, and so she knows how Momsie feels 
about me. 

" I often think of the old days, when I had been 
away and came home, how good it seemed to get into 
the house and walk all round and stretch myself out. 
I used to think if I could only go home oftener, I 
could do better work. I have the same pride now to 
do something you both would be proud of." [That 
is just like Walter, I said.] 

" I don't want M to forget the things we used 

to talk about." [There is no danger, M said, 

as he read these words.] 

" I haven't told you much about Grandfather, but 
I want to say a little bit about him. He keeps up a 
good deal of deep thought about these things. And 
he doesn't rush to the conclusion of the advisability 
of the communion as quickly as Grandmother does. 
She is all intuition and heart and responsiveness. 
He is more matter-of-fact and take-your-time sort." 
[Bless them both, I said.] " I heard you say, 
' Bless them both,' and I say ' Amen ' to that." 

These are characteristic touches, and well exem- 
plify the human quality of life over there as here and 
the continuity of temperament and mental habit. 



298 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

CHURCHES OVER THERE AND CHEERFUL 
HUMOR ALSO 



a 



There are churches over here, and some people 
are no farther along in their discernment of eternal 
truths than they were when trying to save their little 
souls. I don't know what will awaken them if coming 
into this life doesn't. But I will leave that for you 
to do when you get over here. You will want to do 
some preaching over here. And I'll see that you have 
the sleepiest and most degenerate pastorate that I 
can find." 

" He puts his hand right down to his knee, and 
laughs as though it were the best joke that ever was. 
He doesn't mean it at all," the control explains. 

This bit of humor was decidedly characteristic of 
Walter, and his way of lighting up the talk. If we 
ever got the impression that life loses its humanism 
and sense of humor over there, it is good to lay it 
aside. Whatever the ascetics of the church and the 
fearful dogmatist may have thought, we are not in- 
clined to hold to-day that a long, unwholesome coun- 
tenance is a mark of piety. 

Walter resumes : " I am not wholly detached from 
the world and my interest in it. I am eager to have 
better conditions established in the world, and I am 
associated with groups of people over here who are 
everywhere striving with the souls of men." 

I am so glad, I said, to hear of this. 

" I knew you would be glad of it ; that is why I 
told you." At the last Walter added in a spirit of 
fun : " If there is anything you don't know, Pop, 
ask me." 



CHAPTER VI 

OCTOBER 24, 1912, INTERVIEW 

The control began : " The last time you were 
here there were so many questions left unanswered 
that Walter laughed and said — ' I think it would 
take a week of steady work for Pop to get all of the 
news he wants from us.' " 

A BOOK REFERENCE INTERWOVEN 

" But one of the particular things I am going to 
speak about first. I have brought the young friend, 
the young doctor whom you have been so interested 
in. . . . The work which he did led him to communi- 
cate on that subject to his mother, who understood 
the subject almost better than he did." 

We had been interested in the book " Interwoven," 
and this led to an acquaintance with the spirit writ- 
er's mother, Mrs. Dr. T . The letters consti- 
tuting the book were written from the standpoint of a 
spirit physician. 

" All through his messages was a current of 
thought speaking of the usefulness and beauty of 
intercommunion," W continued. 

I cannot conceive how Walter could have said this 

about the mother and the nature of the book except 

through observation of our reading of the book and 

the visit of Mrs. Dr. T at our home a few months 

previous, or by conversation with Dr. T on the 

spirit side. 

299 



300 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

At an interview one year later, Walter made it very 
evident that he knew of a later visit of Mrs. Dr. 
T at our new home. 

I will add that at this later sitting Mr. T , the 

father, reported. " He wishes to send a greeting and 
assure you that he appreciates all you have done to 
make his loved companion's life brighter and 
broader." [Don't know what it means, commented 
the control.] 

" He turns to M. [Mrs. G ] and says she can 

never know what it means to have an honest friend- 
ship when years have brought separation and pain 
and loneliness. But he says she is a pretty cheery 
and bright woman even with all her years, and when 
she comes over here it will be with a spirit of youth 
and progressiveness that makes for rapid achievement 
on this side, and that is — my Lucy." [Name cor- 
rect and personal touch decidedly so.] 

I give room to the above account for its evidential 
quality, and also as showing the reciprocal play of 
influence between spirit and mortal. 

SPIRIT EMPLOYMENTS, THEIR VARIETY AND 
FREEDOM 

Walter goes on : " There are so many of our 
family who keep questioning and begging me to give 
you some word from them that I hardly have time to 
tell you about the gentlemen who are interested in 
this phenomenal expression. But I have met many 
of them. Myers I admire greatly, he is so sincere 
and clear. And I have several times had him at the 
home, and we have talked about you and your desire 
to know so much about these things. And Stainton 



OCTOBER 24, 1912 301 

Moses, I like him much — a group of souls dedicated 
to the understanding of God's love and truth in the 
world. And think of it, Pop, I am with them, and 
just as anxious to have my evidence and my efforts 
go towards the larger unfolding of these wonderful 
things as can be. It makes me happy to feel that I 
have some specific work to do. And the way I am 
able to come to you at home and to see things there, 
I have largely attained through my connection with 
these people who have made a study of this work." 

Everything seems to show that the world of the 
future is not a state of passivity, or absorption in 
contemplation and visions of glory, but a world, 
though transcendent, yet of human adaptations and 
interests. We have heard of the Scotchwoman who 
described the traditional heaven in this way : " We 
shall sit upon stules and sing psalms all the day long." 
Such conceptions of the hereafter are undoubtedly 
passing away. 

A certain spirit communicator has said: 

" There are an infinite number of ways by which 
the spirits employ their time or are occupied in the 
spirit world. Each one pursues the course that is 
best adapted to him, but none are forced into the 
pursuance of any course. All that the soul enjoys 
to be occupied upon, it will find ample means to reach 
in the spirit world." 

There is a sense of humanness, and sound wisdom, 
and freedom in these words that is impressive. 

MEDIUMISTIC WRITING A NATURAL PROCESS 

At this point Walter gave a brief message in auto- 
matic writing of which we were very glad, apart from 



302 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

the message, as showing that he could make use of 
this method of communication. The automatic ac- 
tion seemed very evident as we looked on, and I held 
the paper in place, and the medium's face reflected 
the agitation of her arm. 

In " Interwoven " the process is described in these 
words : " Some of them are here to-day watching me 
write. They see my fire stream out and attach to the 
fire from the medium's white nerve cords, and then 
press along into type. Just as when on earth my 
sense went down on my own white nerves and out into 
my fingers, and then into words. Why, it is a natu- 
ral process ! " 

The main part of the script was the following: 

" Yes, Pop, I can hear you when you ask God to let 
me come to you, and to make the life of the spirit real 
to all of us. And you never forget. 

" Dearest Momsie, how good to be so consciously 
near to you both. 

(Signed) " Walter Graves. 
'* Better read this with your glasses on, Pop." 

A SPIRIT PROCESSION AND GREETINGS 

The control then rapidly introduces one spirit 
friend after another in a way dramatic and intensely 
interesting to us. A few of these messages I omit as 
not full enough to point unmistakably to identity. 

" The first one is your mother. Walter takes her 
right by the hand. She wants to say something in 
her own right to you." 

" i Dear Children, both mine, how can I say all 
that I feel in so short a time. But this is the one 
thought uppermost in my mind: I thank God for 



OCTOBER 24, 1912 303 

this opportunity to tell you of my interest, my love, 
and that all the weariness and pain are things of 
the past. And I am often with you, and have been 
with you many times through the summer, when there 
was a happy, happy time, with only one shadow — 
the absence of Walter in the body.' 

" And your father — he is different from your 
mother : " 

" 4 1 waste no words in telling you of how much I 
think of you. My interest is in the boy, and I am 
proud of him, and glad he is here.' " 

I interjected — Take good care of him. 

" ' I can't take care of him ; he is more likely to 
take care of me. My knowledge of life seems rather 
meager compared to his. But he is so bright, full of 
joviality and spirit, and he keeps us all on the move 
to tell him everything about you that we can remem- 
ber. He is a good boy, and he is yours shared with 
us till you come over.' 

" And right with your father is your father's 
mother, your grandmother, gone a long time. She 
just stands by you one second, and steps right over 
by the side of your wife, and she says : 

" ' I want to send my message to her in the home 
and about her tasks.' . . . And she says — ' I know 
what the sorrow is of a mother who peers out into the 
dark and sees no face looking back to her of the boy 
she loved.' " 

The procession of spirit friends continues. " An 
Uncle Jon. comes to her." [Mrs. G .] 

Doubtless the control took the name to be John, 

but Mrs. G knew it to be Jon., an abbreviated 

form of Jonathan used in the family connection. 



304 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" He is full of fun, and he says, ' I don't want to 
make this so serious that it seems like giving testi- 
mony in a prayer meeting. I want to bring some of 
the glad joy.' " [This was like the breezy manner of 
Uncle J as we both knew him.] 

Then a woman at once succeeded. 

" She seems like an old maid woman, slim and 
straight, but awfully faithful and good. She seems 
more like a cousin to your father, as though she 
belonged to that part of the family." 

This was only a touch, but it was an evidential 

picture to me of a Mrs. P. M , a paternal cousin 

to my father, who lived for many years in the same 
village with us and was a frequent caller at our home. 

" That Uncle Charles wants to speak : ' This is 
my effort to let you know that I am here, and not 
only interested in the subject, but interested in you 
both.' " 

Then a woman younger than those previously in- 
troduced came forward. 

" As I see her, she went out quick to the spirit, 
and the name begins with L." And at once the con- 
trol added, " Lilly." 

" She says and laughs : * Oh, it makes me happy 
to see everybody over here ! ' She talks about the 
beauty and life over there, and the flowers. First 
she was very lonesome, she didn't want to die. If she 
could send to her people messages as clear as Walter 
sends to you, she would think it was heaven upon 
earth." 

This was clearly my niece, Mrs. Lillian S , 

whom we used to speak of as " Lilly." She passed 
over suddenly the fall of 1911. 



OCTOBER 24, 1912 305 

I will add here that in these messages there are 
now and then touches of remembered ways and man- 
nerisms and tastes that cannot always be well ex- 
pressed, and that while they do not come home to the 
reader, they have a quiet evidential force with those 
who long knew these spirit friends in the body. My 
niece, " Lilly," for instance, was brought up in a 
home where plants and flowers were much cultivated 
and loved. 



CHAPTER VII 

BRIEF REPORT OF SPIRIT MESSAGE, 
APRIL 24, 1913 

SPIRIT VISITANTS 

The control : " You would be surprised to know 
how many of your people come out to your home, and 
see you at home. They are becoming accustomed to 
this sort of spiritual unity in life, and do not feel the 
separation as in the past, but feel the naturalness of 
the association." 

" IT SEEMS SO GOOD TO BE TALKING IN A LAN- 
GUAGE THAT WE ALL UNDERSTAND " 

" The boy the very first thing says : ' Let me give 
you my tenderest love, and tell you how glad it makes 
me to have you come and give me this chance to tell 
you some of the things I have experienced, and some 
of the new happiness that is mine.' There are tears 
in his eyes. They are partly from recollection of 
the past, partly from the joy which he feels to-day. 
6 It seems so good, 5 he says, ' to be talking in a lan- 
guage that we all understand. And I have so many 
things to tell you, how I have grown in knowledge, 
and how stupendous this truth seems to me to-day.' " 
[Walter has in mind the truth of communion and 
communication between the two worlds.] 

" ' I wonder that I ever thought lightly of it. I 

had to have experience to show me how important it 

306 



APRIL 24, 1913 307 

is that life after death be a proved subject for those 
who are left.' " 

" THE PLACE WHEREON THOU STANDEST IS 
HOLY GROUND " 

Then Walter adds this meaningful statement as to 
the motive and attitude of spirit in which we make 
approaches to the spirit world : — 

" Then you can imagine according to the spirit in 
which this matter is taken up, the materialistic per- 
son gets only materialistic evidence, and the spirit- 
ually-minded man like you, who finds in this expres- 
sion a religious rite and ecstasy, gets that expression 
out of this truth. And when you pray and feel the 
exaltation of the presence of God we are exhorted to, 
I feel that same uplift which comes to you and Mom- 
sie." 

This was a great sentence for us, and a revelation 
of the spiritual unity and subtle interaction of souls. 
It was indicative also of the reverent and religious 
spirit in which all drawing nigh to the world unseen 
should be made. And we want to say here that all 
our approaches to the spirit realm, and all this reach- 
ing out in effort to break the terrible silence of death, 
have always been made with as much reverence and 
devoutness as I would seek to carry into the pulpit 
on a Sunday morning. 

In a brief interview with Dr. Hyslop at the time 
of these sittings, I stated that I disliked the attitude 
of those whose only motive in psychic experiments 
seemed to be amusement or idle curiosity. 

" So do I," affirmed the doctor. 

And while we hold that the notion of spirit com- 



308 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

munication as a meddlesome and blasphemous prying 
into the jealously-guarded secrets of God is an in- 
herited superstition, at the same time we must hold 
that the dignity and tremendous import of the mat- 
ter should inyest it with reverence and a religious at- 
mosphere. 

"EVERYTHING I STUDIED AND EVERY STEP I 
TOOK, OF IMPORTANCE IN MY LIFE OVER 
HERE " 

" I almost wish I could crowd all the rest out, 
and just sit down in the way we used to, and ask 
you all kinds of questions and answer all yours. The 
first thing I want to say, now I have told that I 
haven't lost an iota of my love, is that I am study- 
ing, and all this logic that I tried to get into my head 
serves me to-day in my work here. Sometimes it 
seemed as if all the money and time had been wasted, 
I mean the money and time put into my education. 
And yet I find that everything I studied and every 
step I took was of importance to me in my life here. 
Instead of forgetting what I learned, it became 
clearer to me what was intended by that education, 
and I am putting it into practice over here. It is a 
paying practice too, not money in the way I had 
planned to make it, but superior values that make 
you and Momsie and me richer. 



5? 



PSYCHIC DISCUSSIONS IN SPIRIT 

Then Walter tells us of the recognition that had 
been given him by people over there who had made 
a long and deep study of this psychic problem. " I 
think it is because I am so eager to make all this 
plain to you, and because I am enthusiastic about it. 



APRIL 24, 1913 309 

I have had opportunity and invitation to attend lec- 
tures and meetings over here where all these things 
are discussed." 

FAMILIAR FAMILY TALK AND FELLOWSHIP 

He says : " Of course I couldn't come alone this 
morning even though I wanted to. Grandmother is 
about as anxious to get to you as I am. It is a dif- 
ferent relation, but she thinks as much of you as you 
do of me, so she says." And then he smiles — " I 
don't believe it. No family ever loved each other as 
much as ours, and anyway we were never afraid to 
express it. We never grew up. . . . 

" She has been good to me. She has never talked 
very much about what has happened. But in those 
first days, when we were all so dazed by what had 
happened to me, she was like an angel, and quietly 
and gently took care of me, and answered all my 
questions, and seemed to know at once my one desire 
would be to go home. I can talk calmly now about 
those first days. They were so uncertain to me, I 
couldn't seem to get hold of anything to give me 
peace until I remembered your talk and interest in 
this subject. And then I talked with Grandmother 
about it, and the rest was easy. The minute I came 
where you were, my desires found some expression. 
I do not know of anything so important as this, and 
I feel ashamed that I didn't help you more. But 
it gave me an incentive to work. . . . 

" She, Grandmother, wants to speak for herself." 

" In a little low, quiet voice, she begins to talk," 
said the control, " if I can catch what she says : — " 
I wish I could tell you what comfort it is to us 



« 



310 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

to feel that we are actually doing something for you. 
And so many things in my life I have to thank you 
for, that to be able now to take Walter into my home 
and have him part of my life here and have him talk 
about you all, makes my life happier, more complete." 

" She doesn't smile very much ; she is sweet and 
lovely, but not full of fun like Walter," the control 
commented. 

" He tries to fool with her some as with his mother. 
He says : ' I think it is good for her, and I wouldn't 
know how to get along with anyone who was kind and 
good to me unless I could do just what I felt like 
doing.' " 

This is certainly like Walter and his sense of 
humor, and incidentally it gives another relieving 
touch of humanness to the other life. Most of us, I 
think, do not desire that when we change our bodies 
we shall lose the sense of being folks. 

A little further on, I asked Walter if he remem- 
bered anything about my order. At once he replied, 
" Ask Momsie if she knows anything about it. 
We'll fix him when we get him over here ; we won't 
let him find anything for a week." 



CHAPTER VIII 

MENTAL PICTURING, APRIL 25, 1913 

The following is of a different character from the 
preceding heart-to-heart talk, and involves mental 
imagery. 

THOUGHT-COMMUNION AND ITS DIFFICULTIES 
IN THE TRANCE SITUATION 

Spirit testimony indicates that thought-communion 
has possibilities in the spirit world and body which 
it is far indeed from possessing with the gross media 
of this life. Over there, w T e have good reason to be- 
lieve, there is a language without words as well as 
language with words, and ideas and mental pictures 
may be flashed from mind to mind. Said one spirit: 
" When I tried to speak I found that my thoughts 
were understood, actually understood, and their 
thoughts were returned to me." As we reflect, it 
would certainly seem in order that along with all 
other heightened powers of our spirit nature, this fac- 
ulty of thought transmission should be augmented 
in scope and facility. 

Now the trance condition affords strong evidences 
of this heightened thought-communion, but it is ham- 
pered with difficulties and limitations incident to the 
peculiar situation. The visuel says again and again, 
" I see," as the impression or image is received from 

the spirit communicator. But the message does not 

311 



812 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

always come through distinctly, and the image may 
be blurred and the real object mistaken for some- 
thing like unto it. In our sittings, the control stated 
several times that she was in a thicker medium than 
the spirit communicators ; it was, she said, as though 
she were submerged in water and the spirit friends 
were above her in the air, and seeking anxiously and 
by various devices to get their message down to her. 
The control often has an intent and listening atti- 
tude, and at times even seems to struggle to catch 
the thought impressions of the operators above. 
The light, in passing through, may be refracted by 
the thicker medium or fail to get through at all. 

This little digression may serve as an introduction 
to the interview. 

SPIRIT GUIDANCE THROUGH THE OLD 
PARSONAGE 

I suddenly asked Walter about the old parsonage 
where we lived. The control said, interpreting Wal- 
ter indirectly: 

" There is a brown house just before one gets to 
your house. When I look at yours, that seems 
lighter and brighter and prettier. Walter runs up 
two or three steps quickly and right into a door. 
When I get in there, it is a room filled with sun- 
shine. You can walk through this room out into 
another room — that is just home-like like the other 
one, more like a room where you eat. And then I 
go out through again into another room, and that 
looks like a kitchen. Then you go down some steps 
and get something out of the shed, and come back 
into the kitchen; you get wood, kindlings and build 



APRIL 25, 1913 313 

a fire. Out of one window you see fields, grass, and 
trees and out of the other you see houses. There is 
another room ; when you are there you are not dis- 
turbed; I think it is your study. He shows to me 
books, and a table, and there is another thing near 
the windows and looks like a table with papers on it. 
You see bookcases around. I look up and see a pic- 
ture of a person, and you look up with a feeling of 
love to it, and almost talking to it. I think it is 
Walter's picture." 

" Does he like the picture? " I ask. 

" Of course Walter likes the picture. Sometimes 
when you are working there, he is there. You can 
sit in the study and look out into another room. 
There is an outside porch." 

At a previous time, the control said there were 
three beds upstairs. 

Of course this is only a descriptive outline, and the 
square piano by the window with its pile of music 
seemed in her mental picture like a big table, but as 
a general guide to the parsonage it gives a very 
good account, and it has sufficient peculiarities to 
distinguish it from houses in general. All the de- 
tails given of the rooms and surroundings were cor- 
rect except the piano. 

PUTTING UP A WIRE FENCE BY TELEPATHIC 

IMAGERY 

This was followed at once by another piece of ob- 
jective evidential work in the same surroundings, 
where the results were still more satisfactory because 
more specific, and there did not seem to be a flaw or 
break in the evidence. 



314 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

I asked Walter if he remembered any job of work 
he did in September, 1910, back of the house. 

The control at once repeated what she saw : " I 
see something like a hammer with which he pounds. 
He walks and does something out there on the 
ground; I don't know whether he is building some- 
thing or putting up something. It is still there, 
and he is glad that he did it. It seems more like 
something put up to make things better. I see him 
working away, and making measurements and sight- 
ing. I hear a noise, there is pounding, it makes me 
think there is wood connected with it." 

W used three stakes which he pieced out as 

they were not long enough. He also used hammer 
and nails in affixing bottom boards to the stakes and 
buildings. 

" I see his hands reach up, there is some stretching 
to it, that makes it good. He puts down the letter 
H " ; and slowly the control spelled the following : 
" H-e-n y-a-r-d, hen yard." 

That is good, I said. 

And Walter instantly replied : " It is not only 
good for you, but good for the hens." 

" He made the frame, the thing around it," the 
control went on, " to keep the hens out of the gar- 
den." 

I inquired, What is the thing called that goes 
around it? 

And she replied : " Walter says, ' Chicken wire.' 
It is measured by the yard." 

It occurred to me to ask the control if she knew 
about chicken wire, though from her history I knew 



APRIL 25, 1913 315 

she passed over very young. She replied, she did not. 

The whole account is a strikingly accurate and 
vivid piece of spirit mental picturing. 

These notes, I may add, like all my psychic notes, 
I took on the spot, the communicator from the other 
side adapting himself or herself to my pace. Mrs. 
G also took duplicate notes of much of the ma- 
terial. 

THE OLD CHARGE OF TRIVIALITY 

It may be charged that such evidence as the fore- 
going is of a trivial nature, but we well know that 
in this complicated world of human life many things 
that may be called trivial in themselves are by no 
means trivial in their bearings and implications. 
And this seems to me preeminently true in this case. 
In the matter of legal evidence, when an important 
question of justice or of personal identity is at stake, 
we would not look upon any circumstance that served 
to establish the truth as irrelevant and trivial. But 
this question of personal identity assumes great im- 
portance indeed as we transfer it to a spiritual state 
of existence, and we must assume that trifles here 
have the same force and validity as in common life. 
We should not account anything as trivial that makes 
the truth clearer and more familiar. 

GROWTH OF THE SPIRIT BODY 

At the last, we had a little talk on the spirit body. 

" It comes over here partially developed, and it 
grows into completeness as it comes in contact with 
expressions of life here which call out certain ca- 



316 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

pacities. In other words, the need of a spirit body 
creates it. I find myself that I grow as I express." 

In case of the spirit body, it is evident from this 
and in many ways that it is more intimately the in- 
strument of the soul than the flesh and bone body. 
It is less gross and rigid, more fluidic, and more 
readily conforms itself to the moulding, transforming 
power within. It is more expressive of the soul. 

" My body looks about the same as the body you 
knew," Walter continued. " Rut as I need to express 
some purpose or aspiration, I find myself growing 
to that aspiration with capacity and form." 

W adds that many times he had looked upon 

people over there who looked as incomplete as in- 
fants. That was because they failed to take hold of 
the spiritual life with a spiritual purpose. He spoke 
of some who were very sure of what they would find 
when they got to heaven, and they lacked in the fac- 
ulty of spiritual comprehension and adaptability. If 
we are going to make a long sojourn in a strange 
country, it would seem to be the wise thing to learn 
of the possibilities and adaptabilities of life there 
that the effect upon us may not prove bewildering 
and disappointing to our traditions. 

A LETTER DICTATED FROM THE SPIRIT 

" As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a 
far country." 

A letter has to be written, perhaps dictated, trans- 
mitted and delivered. And why should not the way 
of earth find some counterpart in spirit, differing in 
detail, of course, according to the conditions and 
adaptabilities of the new channel? And if we object 



APRIL 25, 1913 317 

to the spirit way through transmitter, spirit tele- 
phone, and amanuensis, we might as well be consistent 
and thorough and object to all our mechanisms for 
getting messages through here. Nevertheless, there 
has to be a telephone, and some one has to listen. 

"To M , my Beloved Brother: — 

" Out of all this seeming tragedy has come the most 
wonderful expression to us all, and never again can we 
feel that there is the least separation for those who are 
bound together as we were by an understanding love. 
Whatever I am able to do for the little one who bears 
my name, I need not tell you shall be done with joy. 

" So much I do want to say to you about the reality 
of this life, of the people I have met, of the glorious 
opportunities for work, of the enthusiasm that comes 
to men over here when the horror of the end of life is 
taken away. But I cannot take time from this effort 
being made, to give more definite and conclusive evi- 
dence of my associations with people over here, and 
must let this brief message speak of my undying af- 
fection. No two brothers ever loved each other more. 

And M , dear, never think that my life has been 

completed; it is just begun, it is just begun. And I 
take you all with me in my thoughts up the paths of 
spiritual usefulness; I could not go on without you." 

Control : " He turns away and brushes the tears 
away. It is his happiness. With a little smile he 
says : 

" ' How could a man help becoming a good angel, 
when he is ousted into angelhood by such devotion 
as I have had given me.' " 

As the interview closed, the control announced, to 
our great satisfaction — " To-morrow Mr. Myers is 
going to speak." 



CHAPTER IX 

MYERS' INTERVIEW, APRIL 27, 1913 

In October, 1912, Walter had spoken of his ac- 
quaintanceship and his admiration for Mr. Myers, 
and at the sitting, April 24, I had inquired if it were 
possible for us to obtain a communication from him. 

MR. MYERS' PRONOUNCED BELIEF IN SPIRIT 
COMMUNICATION 

Few names are better known in the annals of Psy- 
chic Research than that of Frederick W. H. Myers 
of England, who devoted thirty years in an indefat- 
igable search for proof absolute and convincing of 
the immortal life. This search is embodied in his 
monumental work in two volumes, entitled, " Human 
Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death." Mr. 
Myers' long and profound studies of all classes of 
psychological phenomena led him to a pronounced 
belief in spirit communication. Here is his own 
statement : 

" It seems to me now that the evidence for com- 
munication with the spirits of identified deceased per- 
sons through the trance utterances and writings of 
sensitives apparently controlled by those spirits, is 
established beyond serious attack." 

Sir Oliver Lodge was fully in sympathy with Mr. 

Myers and his work, and at the erection of his me- 

318 



APRIL 27, 1913 319 

morial gave an address on " The Communion of 
Saints." 

He expressed his judgment that Mr. Myers had 
found in his life study scientific proof of the immor- 
tality of the soul, and the harmony of the universe 
with the highest aspirations of man. 

FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION 

As soon as we were seated, the control announced 
that Mr. Myers was present, with Walter and other 
friends. Mr. Myers at once began : — 

" It is a pleasure and gratification to come directly 
to a man who seeks to know about the life and op- 
portunities and limitations of the spirit disembodied. 
More than this, it gives me personal pleasure to tell 
you of my interest in your son, who is making very 
rapid growth in the understanding of all these prin- 
ciples of immortal life. It is because of him and his 
earnest desire to give you clear and convincing evi- 
dence of his presence, his knowledge, his memories, 
that I come and desire to be known as your friend 
over here. We assemble with common purposes and 
interests, and talk over all these perplexing difficul- 
ties and try to find the explanation. And it is at 
such meetings that I have met and become interested 
in this young man that came to you. And whatever 
I am able to give you which may throw light on the 
subject, I give gladly and freely, and hope it may 
give you more power to help the world. My interest 
was always in the great world, which needs this illu- 
minating religion. I am now ready for your ques- 
tions." Mr. Myers then adds — " One word more ; 
let me greet your wife. ! 



?? 



320 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

I would say here, I had planned this sitting as a 
questionaire and Walter had advised me to do this 
for the most satisfactory results to ourselves, and had 
told me " to fire my questions." 

A SPIRIT QUESTIONAIRE. THIRTY QUESTIONS 
AND ANSWERS 

1. It is especially difficult on this side to clearly 
apprehend the location of the spirit world, and the 
foundation or support of the spirit world. Here we 
live on the surface of a planet, we have a definite lo- 
cation and foundation; but how shall we conceive of 
location and foundation in the spirit world? 

" The fishes swim in the sea, and are as much at 
home as to location and foundation and motion as 
quadrupeds who walk only on the crust of the earth. 
It is hard for one who has never been in the spirit life 
to comprehend the reality of the world where spirits 
dwell. There is a foundation as real and tangible to 
us as your world is to you. Likei a belt, it sur- 
rounds THE PLANET, AND EXACTLY SUITS THE NEEDS 
OF THE SPIRIT BODY." 

2. Must not this foundation and floor of a spiritual 
sphere be more substantial and condensed than the 
space above it? 

" Yes, in a degree. But everything in the spirit 
life is more fluidic, more elastic, just as real and tan- 
gible but not so solid." 

We would infer from this that while the spirit 
world has a real and sensible foundation for spirit 
existence, yet spirit form is so fluidic that life is not 
on one plane, nor movement restricted as with us, but 



APRIL 27, 1913 321 

for our apprehension is likened to the freedom and 
buoyancy of motion of the fishes in the sea. 

3. Gen. A. P. Martin in the book " Both Sides of 
the Veil," in giving his experience after leaving the 
body, speaks of passing behind the veil, a veil of 
mist. What does it mean? [The control remarked 
here that Mr. Myers knew Gen. Martin.] 

" Between the physical life and the spirit life is an 
atmosphere created by physical expressions and de- 
sires which seems like a veil of fog, a mist, and the 
soul passes through that into a lighter and clearer 
atmosphere, which is rarefied by the loftier desires 
and purposes of freed spirits. To come above that 
mist and fog of physical life, one has but to clarify 
the spirit with pure aspirations and godlike purpose, 
and the spirit life becomes at once the real life." 

This tends to show there are subtilities in the uni- 
verse which the physicist has not reckoned with, and 
while these subtle expressions are withdrawn from 
fleshly vision, they have tangibility and meaning to 
spirit life. It seems to be a part of the general 
theory of emanations. 

4. How is the spirit world related in motion to the 
earth? Are the spirit spheres fixed in relation to 
the earth, and do they revolve around with the earth? 

" Yes ! Each condition of the physical world has 
its correspondent in the spirit world." 



5. Does the spirit world encompassing our earth 
have several somewhat distinct spheres? What is 
meant by the third sphere, the fifth sphere, etc.? 

" They are terms used by some spirits to designate 



322 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

different states of conscious spirit existence. But 
they have no fixed meaning, as they are used quite 
independently, with their own interpretation de- 
pending upon the thought of the person using it. 
It is not a question of grades, like one being pro- 
moted from one sphere to another. For instance, 
one might walk in the valley a few feet up the hill 
and so on until they attained the heights, but it 
would be no matter of promotion, simply a matter 
of location at the time." 

While we assume there are all degrees of progress, 
and spiritual heights always beyond, and many con- 
genial social groups, we do not enjoy associating 
heaven with the thought of a graded school and its 
promotions. It would seem that a spirit who had 
been over there for centuries might be so weaned 
from the earth as to pass out naturally from the 
earth plane, and yet be no farther developed than 
some spirits nearer earth. 

6. Then again, are there spirit worlds or spheres 
connected with any or all of the other planets, Mer- 
cury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and 
Neptune? We know it is not supposed by astrono- 
mers that the surface of any of these planets is in- 
habited, with the exception of Mars which some, like 
Prof. Lowell, contend is inhabited. Does the spirit 
world have any positive light on this problem? 

" As far as I have been able to discern or to deter- 
mine, the same conditions exist around every planet, 
which is another universe like our own. The ques- 
tion of inhabitants is a mooted one. Many planets 
supposed to be uninhabited are peopled, I am told. 



APRIL 27, 1913 323 

But that I have not yet had personal evidence of." 
From this it seems that the planets are spirit- 
ually-sphered, and more of them inhabited than has 
been assumed. 

7. At this point, I referred to Mr. Martin again, 
and how he stated through Mrs. Piper that he had 
seen Mr. Myers at one time about to undertake an 
excursion to the planet Mars. 

" Mr. Martin was aware of an expedition of spirits 
toward the spirit belt of the planet Mars, and I was 
in the party. But what we discovered is still a mat- 
ter of study and interest to us, and I am not at lib- 
erty to give to the world the discoveries which we 
then made. I haven't the slightest doubt from what 
I have already learned that the first statement I 
made to you about inhabited planets is true. And 

THE INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET MARS ARE IN MANY 
RESPECTS SIMILAR TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE 

planet Earth. There is a common meeting place 
outside the belt which surrounds every planet, for 
spirits of other planets to meet and commune. The 
world is far from ready to accept these truths which 
are real to us, and we must first make a clearer and 
better case for identity, before we put forth our 
newly-discovered truths. We would be laughed out 
of court if we attempted to tell about the things 
which are perfectly real to us, but sound like fairy 
stories to the uninitiated, and especially when we find 
it so hard to tell about the life we have lived." 

I could not help laughing at this, we are so slow 
to believe what lies beyond our little world of ex- 
perience. 



324 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

8. Is it a matter of knowledge over there whether 
there are spirit worlds connected with other solar 
systems ? 

" Yes ! and men who are interested in that particu- 
lar field of inquiry are as sure of it as you are of 
anything which you weigh, and measure, and handle 
in your world. Prof. James is an indefatigable in- 
vestigator into all these things; he is like a child 
asking a thousand questions of people who have been 
over here a long time. Your Walter has the great- 
est respect for Prof. James." 

9. And is it possible to have spirit communication 
with spiritual spheres connected with distant sun 
systems ? There is such an awful gulf. If the near- 
est star is eighteen trillion and six hundred billion 
miles distant, as the astronomer estimates, and it 
takes a ray of light about four years to travel that 
distance, how is it possible to traverse such an ap- 
palling space? 

[" He smiles," the control interpreted.] 
" It is hard for an infant to comprehend how his 
little sailboat might cross the ocean. The pond at 
the foot of his garden is the biggest bit of water 
his childish mind may imagine. But when he grows 
to manhood, the ocean is easily spanned and com- 
munication between England and America is a mat- 
ter of moments. So the infinite distances become 
clear to the finite mind, as the finite mind grows 
toward infinity." 

As Mr. Myers has himself journeyed from our 
earth to Mars through interplanetary space, we can 
better understand how the vast oceans of interstellar 



APRIL 27, 1913 325 

space have been simplified for him. It is an impos- 
sible problem for us in the physical body, but in 
spirit, no doubt, transportation through space as- 
sumes an entirely different aspect. We have hints 
of the possibility, at least for some, of traveling over 
there by power of will in such a way as to exceed the 
speed of light. We really travel by will here, in 
what might be called a rudimentary and clumsy 
method of locomotion. 

10. Are we to assume that the spirit world is in- 
finite and co-extensive with the material universe? 

" Yes ! No other 1 assumption is possible, after 
you begin to understand the subject of how life 
stretches off into the limitless." 

11. Does our moon have a spirit sphere? 
"The moon has a definite spirit sphere. 

And there are some revelations to be made about the 
moon which will completely revolutionize the ac- 
cepted theory that the moon is a dead planet." 

12. Do you seem to be far away from Earth in 
your normal life and residence? 

" It is above your atmosphere. One doesn't seem 
to be so far away, because of the added powers. 
For instance, the eyes have capacity to see long dis- 
tances, so spirits do not necessarily have to be pres- 
ent in the room where you are working to see what 
you are doing." 

This long-distance vision is one of the most inter- 
esting phenomena among " the added powers " con- 
nected with the great change from matter to spirit. 
In spirit, vision must needs become still more spirit- 



326 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

ual, and must needs minister, we would anticipate, 
to broader and more subtle needs of our spiritual 
environment. We have long-distance hearing well- 
established, and we may reasonably presume that 
long-distance seeing will also be impressed upon us 
in due time from the spirit world. 

13. What would you say of the possibilities of 
long-distance vision? Is it possible for a spirit in 
the third sphere ever to behold a friend on the earth 
plane ? 

" I HAVE YET TO FIND ANY SPHERE SO FAR RE- 
MOVED FROM FRIENDS LOVED STILL ON EARTH THAT 
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE THEM AT ANY MOMENT WHEN 
LOVE TURNS THE SPIRIT EYE EARTHWARD." 

14. Of what substance is the spirit world and its 
objective forms composed? Do you speak of the 
fundamental substance of the spirit world as ether 
or as refined and ultimate matter? 

" Refined and ultimate matter. Spirit always 
expresses itself through form, the only way it could 
be recognized. And man is always expressed 
through a man form, of finer and finer substance, but 
substance still." 

15. How is it possible for the spirit body to pass 
through material forms? In your movements, is a 
building or any form of matter as though they did 
not exist? How did you come here to-day? 

[Control: "He smiles."] 

" Usually we spirit men use orderly means in mov- 
ing about, and enter and leave your homes through 
the same doorway which you pass. When I come 



APRIL 27, 1913 327 

into this house, I do not come down through the roof 
or in through the window, but I walk through the 
door in the same orderly fashion in which you do. 
[A few words are lost here.] 

" It is possible for spirits to pass through 
matter; just how it is done, I cannot tell you. But 
I have seen spirits on one side of a wall at one in- 
stant, and on the other side at the next instant. It 
is a law of mechanics." 

" Then the same day at evening, when the doors 
were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear 
of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and 
saith unto them, Peace be unto you." (John 20: 
19.) 

16. Is the spirit world considered over there as a 
special creation by divine fiat, or has it come into 
existence through some orderly, evolutionary proc- 
ess, like our Earth and its life? 

" It comes into being as the world comes into 
being; it is co-existent with the world and 
grows as the world. The divine fiat is the begin- 
ning." 

There was a little more said, but Mr. Myers con- 
firmed, what the evolutionist might anticipate, that 
the spirit world is a part of the general world proc- 
ess, and is naturally connected with our Earth. 
And would it not seem that if the planets have their 
spiritual spheres and counterparts, and the sub- 
stance of spirit form is refined and ultimate matter, 
we could hardly think of these spheres otherwise than 
as vitally related to the planet itself through refined 
emanations ? 



328 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

17. And I would like to make an inquiry here 
about the objectivity and variety of the spirit world. 
Is it proper to speak of the spirit world as in a large 
sense a duplication of Earth scenes and forms, the 
essential difference being in constitution? 

" Exactly that ! Your question is your answer. 
For instance, every rock has a spiritual rock. Your 
home is duplicated in the spirit. When you go over 
to the spirit you will find the home you desire, with 
rooms, apartments, and all the things that are nec- 
essary for the life that you live there. 

" And the life you live in the spirit will be the life 
you desire to live here. Sometimes the life one de- 
sires to live in the physical world is quite impossi- 
ble, because of contact and association with people 
and conditions which hinder perfect freedom. The 
spirit world gives perfect freedom." 

This certainly gives a home-like and inviting as- 
pect to our heavenly home. The prospect is not so 
foreign and revolutionary as to necessitate the be- 
ginning of life all over again. Indeed, how can it 
be but that the associations and habits of life must 
have a compelling voice in any sane scheme of life 
continued, as a second volume must be related in 
sequence and substance to the first? 

18. What would you say about the reality and 
vividness of objective forms over there as compared 
with similar forms on Earth? 

" They are much more vivid and real. The en- 
casement is so heavy and gross that it is difficult to 
see through and get at the vital expression on Earth. 
In the spirit land, everything being less gross, the 



APRIL 27, 1913 329 

matter of identification of the real essence is much 
simpler." 

We can well believe that flowers in spirit land are 
much more beautiful than here, as spirit friends as- 
sert. 

19. How does the variety of forms and scenes in 
the spirit world compare with the variety of Earth? 
How about such things as soil, grass, flowers, trees, 
birds, landscapes, hills, streams and lakes, houses, 
and the scientific inventions? 

" They are all there." 

20. Is the spirit world a scientific world as dis- 
tinguished from a supernatural world, and subject 
to law the same as our Earth? 

" If by scientific you mean, does the spirit world 
conform to law and growth, I say, Yes. It con- 
forms TO A LAW OF GROWTH AND UNFOLDMENT W r hicll 

man knows very little more about over here than in 
your world. Still at the center of things is an in- 
finite Power, and spirits watch the manifestations 
of that power with the same consciousness of infinity 
as you do here." 

Such a declaration from Mr. Myers that the great 
principle of unfoldment holds over there as here is 
at least interesting. 

21. What do you think of the scientific investiga- 
tion and treatment of the future life that is being 
carried on here by psychic researchers? 

(As Mr. Myers himself was a most distinguished 
and acute student of all psychic problems, I hardly 
needed to put this question, but thought a reply 
might be helpful.) 



330 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" There is no other way to investigate it. 
The spiritual growth of the world has been crippled 
and retarded by nonsensical notions that there were 
to be no definite searchings after the real truth." 

I here referred to a book, " Our Life Beyond," in 
which the writer, Rev. J. D. Jones, says : " I re- 
gard with aversion and almost repugnance the ex- 
periments of spiritualists, because they seem to me to 
trench upon forbidden ground. I dislike and fear 
these attempts to pry into the secret things of God." 
I stated briefly this mental attitude of aversion and 
aloofness toward psychic inquiry, and in reply Mr. 
Myers expressed himself forcibly. The control, in- 
terpreting and imitating Mr. Myers, brought her 
hands down upon the stand and exclaimed, " What 
did God give brains for? " 

We must agree the reply was most apt. We are 
all seekers and explorers and adventurers ; this is 
the way the world has been subdued and possessed. 

The writer evidently had in mind in his book a cer- 
tain low commercial exploitation of the spiritualistic 
idea associated with fraud. But in this, as in all 
great commanding truths, we can look up to the hills 
of God or fasten our eyes on the swamps and bogs 
below. 

22. Does the life here, the good life and the evil 
life, have an effect upon the spirit body? 

" Of course it does. The life a man lives in the 
world creates the body and its conditions where he 
is to live after this life." 

23. Do disease and old age leave any ill effect on 



APRIL 27, 1913 331 

the spirit body? And if so, is it necessarily perma- 
nent? 

" Disease and old age will pass away from the 
world as men begin to realize that all life is one, and 
that they simply unfold into the spirit life. But 
your very pertinent question as to the effect of old 
age and illness on the spirit body and spirit expres- 
sion I can only answer by saying, it depends entirely 
on what caused the disease and how old age is born. 
One ripens off into the spirit, and leaves the body 
diseased or enfeebled by age as a husk or shell which 
has absolutely no power to dim the luster of the new 
born soul." 

And when I spoke about a spirit body of abiding 
youth, the statement was changed to a spirit body of 
maturity. 

24. How does the spirit body find garments? 

" You create them. They are provided for you 
when you go, exactly as in the case of infants here ; 
but after you have attained a certain individual 
strength you express your individuality through 
your garments." 

The control remarked this was true in a measure 
among people in this life. 

" I do not remember putting on any garments. 
There is just the sense of need, and the need is sup- 
plied. The idea with us is creative. We think, and 
the thing is." [" Julia."] 

" He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in 
white raiment." (Revelation 3:5.) 

25. How is the Pauline theology looked upon by 
advanced spirits over there? 



332 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" Partly right, but failing in the fullest expres- 
sion, probably of much more vital meaning to the 
people of his time than to the people of to-day, who 
have grown. I, too, was intensely interested in Paul, 
his zeal, his thorough purpose, his masterful spirit. 
But I find he had only climbed half way up, got par- 
tial light on the problem of immortality. If Paul 
could speak to-day, he would flood his epistles with 
the light of divine knowledge." 

26. Do the terms, " miraculous " and " supernat- 
ural," have any place in the teaching and thought 
of the spirit world? Would it be well to discard 
these terms here? 

" The nature of the spirit world far surpasses any 
old supernatural ideas in its power and wonder. 
And miracles becoming normal expressions of spirit 
are miracles still to the uninitiated. And to loose 
a people who are bound to idols is no loss at all to 
the onward moving race." 

This seems to accord with the statement that the 
supernatural is the natural raised to a higher plane. 

I remarked here that I heard a clergyman say with 
some vehemence that unless we held on to the super- 
natural in theology, the Catholics would take the 
people and carry everything before them. 

The reply was made, " Let the Catholics take 
them. You join the onward-moving people. The 
Catholics can never hold them; nothing but light 
can save them. Your clergyman is old-fashioned 
enough to be zealous to keep the souls of people even 
in bondage. Let them be free, go where they will; 
eventually they must come to God. : 



?> 



APRIL 27, 1913 333 

There is certainly no timidity about this answer, 
no timid distrust of God or of man. It seems to hold 
that the truth will do us good and not evil, and inci- 
dentally it may help our thought of the spiritual 
freedom of the spirit world. 

27. What would spirit teaching say of the errors 
of omission in the creeds of the church? 

The control interpreted Mr. Myers in this way: 
" To him the errors of omission are fully as grievous 
as the errors of commission. For instance, if they 
omit to open their windows and let in all the light 
that can come, it is fully as grievous as to commit 
some sin which to them means sin." 

Many have no doubt felt that while the creeds 
have sought to express truth, they have also failed in 
expression, and that great and important truths 
have been unrecognized or ignored. For instance, 
what expression or intimation do we find even in our 
revised and latest creeds of the truth of the spiritual 
body as a vital and essential part of our organism 
here, and related to the moral and spiritual quality 
of the life; what expression or hint of the truth of 
spirit return and ministry and the great truth of 
spirit communion and communication ; what expres- 
sion of the location of the spirit world as connected 
with our Earth and of its natural character and cor- 
respondences ; or what emphasis on the great truth 
that character and aspiration and the life as depicted 
by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount should claim 
our commanding attention rather than ecclesiasticism 
and dogma? Mr. Brierly insists our revelation has 
been too limited. 



334 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

28. Do spirit teachers consider it best for us mor- 
tals as a moral discipline to walk here in obscurity 
and perplexity as to the survival of death? 

(I also referred here to the utterances of a certain 
preacher who had dwelt upon the moral effect of un- 
certainty and doubt in life. But it seems easy to 
overdo this idea, and to relegate too much to faith 
and stoicism.) 

" It may be moral discipline to have men born 
blind, and it is quite true that some great souls have 
been blind, like Milton. But there is no reason why 
the average man should pray for blindness, hoping 
through blindness he might become a Milton. Why 

doesn't Dr. shut himself away from his wife 

and his dearest friends while he is still alive, and 
discipline himself to do without this sweet human 
love? This has always been God's hand to lift men 
to their highest and best estate, and their sweetest 
service for Him. Until he can prove to us that it 
is best to shut out all human relations and cut away 
all splendid companionship and make men mock at 
these finer sentiments, and so find God, we shall per- 
sist that these same sweet associations are important 
and necessary for the soul's grandest achievement. 
Why blindfold yourself and feel your way along 
through the passage, and trust that somehow you 
will come out right, when by opening the eyes the 
face of God is plainly seen in his loving expressions 
of continued presence after death ? " 

29. Is it considered over there that all, even the 
most degenerate spirits, will in time adapt themselves 
to the laws upon which progression depends? 



APRIL 27, 1913 335 

" No soul is ever lost. Sometime it must come 
into its birthright of divinity." 

30. At the last I put this question : How do we 
people here in the body seem to people in the spirit? 

" You seem stupid a greater part of the time, like 
heedless children to our touch and expressions of any 
sort, just as often you are to expressions of your 
companions in your mortal life. But with all this, 
we have patience and love and desire to help you 
grow away from that heedless, irresponsive condition 
into the true knowledge and true response to spirit- 
ual influence." 

(This last came quite rapidly, but I was able to 
take it down with the loss of a word here and there.) 

At the close of this very illuminating and uplifting 
interview — which we clearly owed to the earnest 
study and effort of Walter to make himself known to 
us — I said we wished to express some sense of the 
honor we felt in Mr. Myers' consenting to come and 
give us this interview. And the control replied: 
" He says the honor is his." 

As we rose to go, I asked if the friends were all 
there, and the control said they were, and had all 
enjoyed the interview. 



CHAPTER X 

FAMILY SPIRIT INTERVIEW, 
APRIL 30, 1913 

" I am glad to see you," said the control as we 
entered the room. 

" IT MEANS MORE TO ME THAN YOU CAN EVER 
UNDERSTAND " 

" There are so many of them present ; there are 
two grandfathers here with Walter and a grand- 
mother. I wish you could see him, Walter, as I see 
him this afternoon. His face is radiant, and not 
only does his face express his joy, but there seems 
to be something that emanates from him which speaks 
of peace, contentment, and adjustment. 

" ' It comes,' he says, ' from having this association 
with you. It means more to me than you can ever 
understood, until you come over here and stand with 
me and realize the conscious life of the spirit, and 
what it must mean to those whose friends put them 
away as if death had sealed their lips and eyes and 
dried up the fountains of love.' " 

COOPERATIVE PLANS 

At this point, I think, I put the question if Wal- 
ter knew about our plans — for a change was at 
hand. 

" I know all your plans and often have a part in 

336 



APRIL 30, 1913 337 

them, often suggesting to you and Momsie or M 



something which I think would be better for you. 
And I always find you three very responsive." 

And then Walter added this testimony, old, very 
old, but always significant and personal with the 
force of discovery : " I am convinced that love is 
the strongest factor in the world." 

" To-day, I have my two grandfathers and my 
grandmother on my hands " (" and he laughs "). "I 
have told you much about your father with his kind 
stateliness which does not frighten me. We feel 
quite like comrades. Momsie's father is as gentle 
as a woman, and he follows me around as if he 
thought I were Momsie. He wants to talk about her 
all the time, and has many times expressed regret 
that he had to go and leave her. But I tell him 
there is no room for regret over here, and so we busy 
ourselves about something we think will please you 
when you come. You see we have to plan for your 
future, as well as take care of your present. The 
conditions seem somehow reversed, and I am now 
taking care of you. I am planning a home for you 
and Momsie where you can sit as many hours as you 
like without interruption, and study, study, study to 
your heart's content." 

I said something here about our coming over, and 
W continued: 

" I don't want it too soon, because I want you to 
do something for me in this world. I feel as if it 
were a blight on my career unless I can finish it with 
you. 

" Uncle Hartson wants me to tell you that it would 
have meant everything to him to have been able to 



338 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

have connected so soon with his people when his 
tragedy came. But he had to wait. He says, too, 
that he tried to finish some of his work after he went, 
but it was in such a round-about way that it didn't 
give him the same satisfaction. It wasn't because he 
wanted recognition for what he did, but he could have 
worked faster and better if he had had cooperative 
assistance." 

This evidence comes again and again of the desire 
and outreaching of spirit friends over there to estab- 
lish some connection with friends left behind on earth. 
There is healing here. There is mutual fellowship 
and mutual cooperation in ways we are only begin- 
ning to understand. How much the old assumption 
that death is a blank wall and beyond is a terra 
incognita shrouded in mystery, unapproachable, and 
guarded by cherubim with flaming swords, — how 
much of evil this stupid materialism is responsible 
for we can never fully know. " It is a strange spec- 
tacle. On your side, souls full of anguish for be- 
reavement; on this side souls full of sadness because 
they cannot communicate with those whom they love." 
[" Julia."] 

THE VISION OF LAMBS 

The control, suddenly making a change here in this 
interpretation of my brother, says: 

" Do you know about any lambs ? Did your 
brother ever live where there were any lambs ? I see 
all round about him lambs, lambs. And he says he 
doesn't have anything to do with them now, it was 
only an earthly work. But whatever your brother 
did, he did thoroughly. And he is just as happy as 
if he had been in your business instead of his own. 



APRIL 30, 1913 339 

" He says he used his lambs to take care of your 
lambs. Half of the world must be material-minded 
in order to take care of the flocks that are spiritually 
tended by the shepherd of the Lord." 

This reiterated reference to lambs and the vision 

of lambs all about my brother H seemed to us 

both a beautiful and revealing piece of mental sym- 
bolism. At first we were mystified, but the truth soon 
dawned on us as we recalled how my brother dealt 
with wool and became in time an expert wool-grader, 
working in Lawrence, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc. 

" He also says : ' I had no sense of fear when I 
died, only a great surprise. I couldn't believe for a 
long time that it [life] was ended. I thought it must 
be a dream, and when my friends talked to me about 
the change, it still seemed too unreal to be true." 

THE GLASSES' CASE RIGHTED 

" Now he puts down on this table a little leather 
case that seems to be made for glasses or spectacles. 
It isn't his, it is your father's, but he puts it down 
as if he had seen it since he went away in your sur- 
roundings. And the glasses slip down into the case.- 
And he says : ' They don't have to put glasses on 
over here.' " 

" Then he speaks of his mother and yours, as if it 
were the greatest joy to her to be able to see when she 
got over there, because she had been troubled with 
her eyes. ' She died in the Lord, and her faith was 
her staff to the end,' he says." 

Now this account of the glasses was all good with 
the exception of one statement, the glasses belonged 
to mother and not to father. I had carefully pre- 



340 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

served them, and H could well have seen them 

in my surroundings. But the point of interest is 
this : At the sitting on Friday following, I brought 
the glasses referred to with me, and near the close the 
control interjected: — 

" Your mother touches those glasses with a kind of 
air as though they were hers. Her eyes used to get 
so tired, she pushes her glasses up a bit and rubs her 
eyes. She says : ' Your father wanted to recall 
about the glasses, because I always wore them.' I 
see little wrinkles all round her eyes." 

The remark brought the truth of it to mind. 

" THE AWAKENING WAS BEAUTIFUL " 

" I see some cross that came to your mother before 
she died. No one could wish for your mother to stay. 
It seemed such a relief to her, her spirit flies, flies 
from its bondage. I don't know whether it was a 
physical bondage or not, only it was joyous to her 
when she went. She forgets that bondage now. 
What a dreadful thing for such a good woman to have 
to bear that ! But she says : ' It wasn't so dreadful 
because I didn't realize it, and the awakening was 
beautiful.' I see her put her hand right on your 
head and all over it." 

It could not have been otherwise than a most happy 
release when my mother's spirit was at last freed from 
its worn-out tenement. The account was graphic 
and most convincing. 

" And it was a dreadful thing for her to see you 
two suffer so when the boy came to her. And she 
says that he had no sense of pain, and your father 
says the first blow rendered him insensible to the 



APRIL 30, 1913 341 

consequences ; he was practically free although he 
still breathed. 

" There is such a happy group, this little family 
group — the two grandfathers, the grandmother, and 
the uncle and the aunt. 

" One thing more I want to tell you. You know 
anything about a Bible your father had? I see him 
open it. I can see big letters there; I see him pon- 
der and ponder over these things in the Bible. 

" ' My Son, some of its mysteries are never made 
plain till you know about this life after death in all 
its reality.' " 

This big-type Bible or New Testament is now in 
the possession of a sister. 

THE EYE AND EAR TROUBLE 

At this closing point I put in a few questions. 

Dear Brother, can you tell anything about a sick- 
ness you and I had at the same time when we were 
small boys and how it left us? 

The reply at once came : " Is that fever you have ? 
It seems like a fever. There is one that has some- 
thing the matter with the ears, because he puts his 
hand right up to his ear. It is like pain, earache. 
The other brother has trouble with the eyes ; they are 
red, inflamed, and I can't see, I can't have the light 
on them. He laughs about thinness and hunger — 
he is funny; your Walter is like him. There was 
weakness afterwards ; it is quite serious and left quite 
serious conditions." 

What about the eyes ? I ventured. 

" You find trouble there clear to the end of his life, 
but more with one eye than with two. It is about 



342 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

gone, I don't know whether they took the eye out or 
whether he couldn't see with it. It was practically 
no good. It is all closed up so that I can't see any 
eye at all, as if there were no eye in there at all." 

This answer, readily given, was a good general 
exposition of the facts. My brother H and my- 
self were seriously sick with scarlet fever when small 
boys, leaving him blind in one eye and myself deaf in 
one ear. The eye trouble is well put, for in later life 
the eye was removed. 

This little episode was fully convincing at the time 
and has not failed in conviction since. I subjoin that 
F. W. H. Myers from the spirit side, in referring to 
Hudson's theory of a subjective self with powers of 
wholesale mind-tapping and endless delusion, made 
this comment : " He had some of the conceit taken 
out of him when he came over here, for all his experi- 
ments failed." [" Spirit Messages." Prof. Corson, 
page 194.] 

HOW THE TRUTH WORKED OUT ON THE OTHER 

SIDE 

I here put another question to H . Did you 

ever see our boy Walter in the body, when you were 
in the body? 

The control interpreted by saying that Walter 
shook his head, indicating he did not remember meet- 
ing his Uncle H in the body here. But she at 

once added, correcting this first impression, that 

H nodded his head and smiled. And that meant 

yes, he had seen Walter when he (H ) was in the 

body. 



APRIL 30, 1913 343 

This was a significant bit of evidence, and showed 
how the truth worked out on the other side. The 
circumstance was this : In September, 1893, Mrs. 

G and I with the boys stopped over night with 

my brother H in Baltimore while en route to 

the World's Fair in Chicago. Walter was seven 
years old, and I thought might remember the incident, 
but this was the only time he ever met his Uncle 

H , and the very short time he saw him naturally 

did not impress him as it did his uncle. 

" NOBODY EVER LOSES THEIR OWN " 

I directed my attention in closing to my sister, who 
is mentioned in this sitting as the aunt. 

" Right beside your mother I see this grown-up 
young lady," said the control. " When I see her, she 
seems to have been little when she passed over." 

How do you make that out? I asked. 

" I saw this grown-up young woman beside your 
mother, and then I saw a little grave that she couldn't 
have got into. And I saw your mother doing some- 
thing to it, as if she felt sorrow over that little grave. 
But she found her here in the spirit. Nobody ever 
loses their own. 

" Your mother says, ' Annie, Annie, Annie ! I 
send my love to Annie,' and this girl sends her love, 
too, because you are her sister." 

It is worth noting how this name (Mrs. G 's 

given name not mentioned hitherto) is interjected in 
the midst of the message. There was a purpose in 
it. The name came through more readily in this way, 
as often when we cease straining after an elusive name 



344 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

here it suddenly comes to view. It is a part of the 
give and take, of the unexpected announcement in a 
vivid and intensely interesting conversation. 

I went on with my questioning. 

Does our Earth life seem unreal to you, as the life 
over there seems somewhat unreal to us on earth? 
Can you tell me who cared for you over there in your 
infancy and early life? 

" Not as unreal to us is your earth life as 
our spirit life to you, because we are in constant 
communication with those who have loved us, even if 
only as a promise of what we were to be. The mother 
love which would have been given me as it was to you 
and my brothers, followed me into the new life, and I 
was early made aware of the home life of which I was 
a part. No other mother was ever given me, only 
care and loving-kindness and attention. But for the 
mother's companionship I waited till our mother came 
here. I shall know you when you come over here 
better than you will know me." 

This first communication out of the silence of the 
years from a sister who just entered the vestibule of 
the earthly life in 1846, passing out to the spirit 
after a sojourn of six months, naturally deeply im- 
pressed me. The reference to " you and my 
brothers " was significant, as this was the first inti- 
mation of more than two brothers in the family, 
whereas there are three. 



CHAPTER XI 

PSYCHIC INTERVIEW, THURSDAY, 
MAY 1, 1913 

Referring to the interview of Wednesday, the inti- 
mate family talk, the control said : " Walter went 
away happy, walking just as straight, so proud." 
Walter had pioneered the way and helped them to 
express, and he had a double share in this joy of 
intercommunion. 

And referring to a certain test : " I talked with 
him quite a lot last night over in the spirit. We 
meet, and I know about where he goes at certain 
times, and I can find him there." This is but an in- 
troductory remark, but it seemed worth while just as 
a little sidelight on the human quality of social life 
" over in the spirit." 

A STRANGE REAPPEARANCE AND ITS LESSON 

I will first note here a certain reference of interest 
that had come up before, but was not as explicit as I 
wanted. In October, 1912, Walter in a genial way 
had referred to a neighbor of ours and a dog we used 
to know. Here is the October account, not given 
under that date: 

" I see a lady, alive ; her hair is quite gray. She 

is familiar with the house ; she goes in and out. She 

talks more with Momsie than with you ; she is quite a 

talker. It is somebody your boy knew before he went 

345 



346 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

to spirit. She is a worker ; she wouldn't sit down and 
do nothing. There are flowers about her house." 

How does her name begin? I inquired. 

" I see the letter S," was the reply. . . . 

At this point, there was a brief reference to a dog 
that once belonged here, and which Walter had seen 
somewhere over there. It was an interesting an- 
nouncement, and would be startling were it not for a 
long concurrent testimony from the other side of the 
survival of certain intelligent forms of animal life. 

At the present sitting it occurred to me to put the 

question : Does this Mrs. S live on the same side 

or opposite side of street from us? 

" I don't seem to cross the street," was the answer. 
" I seem to walk right straight to your house without 
crossing over." 

I then mentioned the dog. 

" He smiles, and then he says : ' I remember that 
dog.' 

"Did that dog get old? I see it old and I feel 
sorry for the dog. The dog is dead now, but it is 
over in spirit land. There was something sad about 
its going. I don't know whether it was accident or 
it had to be put away. Walter has seen the dog over 
here. There are six letters to its name." 

Then in some way referring to Mr. S , it was 

added : " This man will pass the house ; he is up a 
little." 

It was a familiar sight to see Mr. S pass the 

house seated on his load of wood. The dog, whose 
name was Towser, on account of the infirmities of 
age was finally put to sleep with chloroform. We all 
knew the dog, and he often came down and barked at 



MAY 1, 1913 347 

the kitchen door for a bone or followed us on our 
walks down Trumble Lane. 

The significance of these details which came 
through so accurately, lies partly in the fact that it 
was a familiar neighborly surrounding, but also in the 
allusion to the dog of which we were all fond. That 
there may be a spiritual principle in an intelligent, 
affectionate dog may seem a strange innovation to 
many, and yet it has been surmised and advocated by 
several able writers. We are given to understand 
from the spirit side that such a spiritual principle 
exists in a degree in the highest forms of life below 
man, animal and plant, and in certain cases this 
principle has such consistency and development as to 
be able to come into form after death. How long 
this principle persists in such cases may depend. 
Certainly all accounts agree that there are birds of 
beauty and song in abundance in spirit land. 

In the case of man we cannot doubt the spiritual 
principle is immortal. " God created man in his own 
image, in the image of God created he him." Mes- 
sages are claimed from spirits who affirm that they 
have lived in spirit life for forty centuries and that 
they see as yet no prospect of annihilation. 

" And this is life eternal, that they might know 
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou 
hast sent." 

SPIRIT REPORT OF COMPLICATED FAMILY 
RELATIONSHIP 

The next incident in this sitting concerns a niece 
who had reported briefly in October, 1912, though 
nothing was said about any relationship at the time. 



348 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" As I see her, she went out quick to the spirit, and 
the name begins with L," and at once the control 
added — " Lilly." 

Both statements were correct. Finding she was 
present at this time, I put the questions : Are your 
father and mother on this side or on the other side 
with you? Do you have any brothers or sisters? I 
was careful to avoid anything leading or suggestive 
in the questions ; in fact I planned them to mislead. 

The reply came : " Some are over here and some 
in the body. They are divided. She writes : ' F — 
a — t — h — e — r'; that means that he is in the 
spirit land. She is something to Walter, they are 
connected some way. Is there a brother left in the 
body down here in the earth life? She speaks of him 
as left in the body. Something pleasant has hap- 
pened to him since she went away. Then she puts 
her hand out and takes hold of the hand of a woman 
older than she. Your mother knows her (Lilly) and 
the other woman. Her one word to you is — 6 1 am 
happy now.' I see a young woman over in the spirit 
land with her. She went before Lilly did and she 
belongs to Lilly. It seems more like a sister. Lilly 
is equally divided in her interest. I would think 
there was a sister here because she nods." 

Is the mother over there or here ? I put in. 

" I don't see the mother with Lilly, as I think she 
would be if she were in the spirit. The mother feels 
a sadness ; there is some sort of separation in the 
physical body. You know her mother," the control 
asserted here. " I think if she could believe about 
Lilly what you believe about Walter, she would be 
happy. Lilly puts up three fingers, as if there were 



MAY 1, 1913 349 

three together on Earth, three dear to her. Do you 
know about another man beside her brother that Lilly 
would be anxious to come to? " 

Then she added that she saw the latter E in this 
association of connections. " It stands for some 
person." 

Where does the mother live? I then asked. 

" It isn't near you, for I go some distance. I go 
across land but not water, I go by train. I go west 
across the country ; it is lovely there. The abbre- 
viation of the state where I want to go to see them 
looks like three letters. Is one of them aC?" And 
then she added, " A," and after some hesitation, " L." 

I again put a question as to where Lilly lived the 
last part of her life. 

" Where she lived is not near you." She said it 
needed two words to express it, but she did not read- 
ily catch the words, and I was anxious to pass on. 

" Lilly and Walter are cousins ; they seem like that, 
there is good friendship between them. Her mother 
seems older, but she belongs to you and you to her; 
it is more like brother and sister. She (Lilly) speaks 
of Momsie as Aunt Annie and of you as Uncle 
Lucien." 

This was a straightforward talk, with a large and 
complicated disclosure of correct family relation- 
ship. My sister was living at Long Beach, Califor- 
nia, and this account given us was accurate in all 
the main details. The reference to the brother's 
pleasant happening I was not able to establish by an 
inquiry indirectly made. The talk is so involved in 
its tangle of kinship and inner shadings — the father 
over there, and the mother here, the sister over there 



350 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

and the sister here, the brother here and husband, 
etc, — that it is utterly incredible to me on any theory 
but the one simple theory that looks one squarely in 
the face through all this testimony. If there is a 
spirit in man, and that spirit survives, and there is a 
spirit world belonging to the natural order, then 
there is nothing that stands in the way of spirit com- 
munication but our transcendental prejudices. And 
I venture to say that if any one with open mind will 
give himself in work and study and wisely-directed 
experimentation to this most fascinating and exceed- 
ingly important subject, all uncertainty and vague- 
ness of mental attitude will disappear. 

GRANDFATHER DANIEL 

Directly following this came one of those flying 
personal references that are interjected suddenly. 
As before noted, the name often comes through 
clearly and at once in this way. I did not get full 
notes of this, but took down as follows: 

"Do you know of anyone whose name is Daniel? 
He is an oldish man, he is in the family association. 
He takes everything earnestly, seriously; he is a dear 
old man. Your family keep together in a beautiful 
way." 

I did not locate this man in the quick transition, 
but Mrs. Graves did, and she was no doubt correct 
in placing this personality as my mother's father — 
Deacon Daniel Eaton. 

"HE IS JUST AWAY!" 

At the very close of the sitting, I asked Walter if 
he knew anything of a poem called " Away." The 



MAY 1, 1913 :*5l 

control at once reflected his interest, and said as if 
listening — "Riley"; and then stretching out her 
arm, she repeated: — 

With a wave of the hand 
He has wandered into an unknown land/ ' 

"'With a wave of the hand,' little tears came to 
his eyes," she said. 

This little incident was very personal and dramatic, 
as we were making ready to leave. The little poem 
of James Whitcomb Riley, " Away," we had framed 
and hung it under Walter's picture: 

" I cannot say, and I will not say 
That he is dead. He is just away! 

' With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand 
He has wandered into an unknown Land, 

" And left us dreaming how very fair 

Tt needs must he, since he lingers there. . . . 

1 Think of him still as the same, I say; 
He is not dead — he is just away." 

And I might add also that when the little framed 
poem was put in place, I had a distinct impression 
that Walter was there and tried to express to us his 
sympathetic knowledge of it all. 

In an interview we had with Mrs. Chcnowcth, the 
psychic, the next day, it occurred to me to inquire if 
she had ever heard of a poem entitled " Away." 

She replied she never had, and then smiling asked 
if she were confessing her ignorance. 



352 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

Mrs. G and I were not aware of the poem 

until it was brought to our attention shortly after 
our boy passed over, and we are glad to refer to it 
here, for it is a poetic gem struck from the heart and 
it gives a true human connection with the life to 
come. The words, '* With a cheery smile and a wave 
of the hand," were eminently characteristic of Wal- 
ter, and have helped to endear the little poem. 



CHAPTER XII 

FINAL TALK OVER THE BORDER, 
MAY 2, 1913 

PARTING EXCHANGES 

As we came in, I said : If I could see a little more 
clearly, I would shake hands all round. 

" Walter laughs at that ; it would be like shaking 
hands with the air," the control said. 

As this was the last sitting of the series, I ex- 
pressed a short personal message which I give here 
in part : — 

We want to say we cannot express how much these 
interviews mean to us, how greatly they have com- 
forted us, and what a door Walter and the others 
have opened for us into the spirit world. We feel 
as though we were walking on air as we go away 
from here. Above all we are so thankful our dear 
boy is progressing. As you say, " Love is the strong- 
est thing." The spiritual elements of life are the 
abiding elements. What Brother said about the 
lambs I shall not forget, and the messages from him 
and Lilly are very evidential. I am sorry I could not 
seem to make this connection with Brother before. 

" He is glad to come to you now in this way," the 
control said. 

And to her we sought to express a sense of our ap- 
preciation : 

353 



354 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

We realize something of the great and sacred gift 
you have of spirit interpretation, and we feel we 
cannot express our thanks to you for the wonderful 
way in which you have bridged the chasm and brought 
Walter and the others into this close communication 
with us. 

" It is joy to me to have some one to cooperate 
with me," was the reply. " Walter is the smart one. 
When Lilly was trying to talk, Hartson wanted to 
help, but Walter pushed him right back. Walter is 
the general; I shall have to call him General Wal- 
ter." 

A LITTLE DRAMATIC INTERPLAY 

Then followed a message in few words from Mr. 
Dixon, Mrs. G 's father. 

" He says he wants to be recognized as one of the 
interested ones in this work. Not only does he love 

Walter, but M , and he wants that put down — 

his interest in the living boy." 

The control added she would hardly put it that 
way. " The living boy," was a natural survival of an 
earthly mode of expression. 

" He is a good boy, and you tell him that in every 
possible way I shall help him in his life work." 

" Aunt S is right over there watching the pro- 
ceedings." [The control points to a corner of the 
room.] " She can't watch very long without taking 
a part." 

This fine touch was like Aunt S -'s stirring, in- 
terested way, as we remember her more than twenty 

years ago. In a previous reference to Aunt S , 

it was remarked — " She is very pushing, a bustling 



MAY % 1913 355 

kind of woman. She breaks right in to say what she 
wants to say." It was a good bit of characteriza- 
tion. 

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN CHRIST? 

At this point, I interjected a question suddenly 
which I had had in reserve among my religious and 
theological queries awaiting opportunity. It was 
the question that is often put to the spirit inter- 
preter — Have you ever seen Christ ? 

" No, I never have, but I have seen people who, 
have, and I could if I could be spared from the work 
I am doing. It is like going to see the king; if you 
are busy washing dishes all day, you can't go. But 
there is such a person; his disciples are everywhere 
present. But they are far different in their work and 
effort from some of the people who live in your world, 
and who sincerely believe they are carrying out his 
will in special ways which they are interested in. He 
is still teaching, he was always The Teacher. Let 
those who preach remember what he taught." 

Another spirit interpreter in a different situation, 
who said she had been in the spirit for a long period 
and was in the sixth sphere condition, told me she 
had seen Christ, but that he was in the highest sphere. 
She had not seen him so as to touch him, and my im- 
pression was she saw him as an illuminated spirit 
through extended spirit vision. She gave me to un- 
derstand in a quiet and sweet manner that she did not 
regard Christ in the theological sense as God or as 
born of a virgin. 

Many to whom the natural order and progressive- 
ness of the future life has not been a subject of 



856 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

thought and interest have fully expected to go into 
the immediate presence of Christ after death. In a 
certain psychic account (Hibbert Journal) the ques- 
tion is asked : 

"Did she see Christ?" 

" Not yet, friend. There are few able to see him 
when they enter this world of light. They must be 
thoroughly cleansed and get away from earthly condi- 
tions in order to meet him. He did not the things 
of life that mortal souls did, hence he went to the 
world of purer light." . . . 

We are told he is in the highest sphere, that he 
passed on ages ago. The secret of endless confusion 
here is the lingering pagan and ecclesiastical concep- 
tion of the realm of the future as divided into two 
vast compartments. " In my Father's house are 
many mansions." 

The reader of " Letters from Julia " will recall how 
the spirit author, Miss Julia A. Ames, had a differ- 
ent experience from those here given. Conducted by 
a guide, she testified to hearing the voice and holding 
converse with Christ, who at first was invisible to her, 
but soon revealed himself in human shape as " the 
flamebright One," full of " wonderful sweet mildness." 
We must suppose that experiences differ endlessly 
over there as here. " I do not for a moment believe," 
writes Mr. Stead, " that her experiences are to be 
accepted as those common to all the departed." 

AMHERST LIFE 

I wanted in closing to touch on the old Amherst 
life. I asked as few questions as possible, just 
enough to start the communication. 



MAY 2, 1913 357 

Did you and M or did you not room in more 

than one place while in college? 

" I say, Yes," was the reply. " In one place they 
were a long time." 

How many inmates were in the first place ? 

" Two," was at once given. 

Tell about your room. 

" He shows me a picture of a good-sized room, and 
a lot of things in it. I go upstairs to get to it ; it is 
a pleasant, home-like room. You go into a room that 
is in front, and then I see a door that is open into 
another place, and everything about it is like home. 
I see a bed right in that first room where I went in to 
the front. I see two connected rooms, the small one 
seems to be the bedroom." 

" It was a good lay-out," Walter says. 

In how many places did you have rooms ? 

" I see a 3 now, as I saw a 2 before," was at 
once given. I would put down here that these 
answers to my questions are correct, and three of 
them seem to me strikingly good. These three are 
the number of inmates, two, in the first lodging, the 
suite of two rooms upstairs (I was careful to speak 
of only "a room") and the bed in the front room 
when one would rather expect it in the back room. 
The long time in one place included the Junior and 
Senior years. 

THE POSTMAN AND HIS LEATHER BAG 

I tried to put questions that involved definite, cir- 
cumstantial knowledge, and I made inquiry here as 
to the business of the man on the place where the boys 
rented last. The reply came in this way : 



358 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

" I see the man coming home and sitting down. It 
is no business condition like a merchant ; he goes out 
to it. I see the man (broader in shoulders than you) 
start off ; he has a little bag in his hands, looks like a 
leather bag. In that leather bag are things he has 
to do with in his profession, he could not do without 
it. When he opens the bag, I see a whole lot of 
things in there. He picks them up and looks at 
them, and lays them down and picks them up again, 
and finally finds the thing he wants. There are dif- 
ferent sizes, are not exactly alike. They seem to be 
connected with other people, and they know about it. 
He does some work with these things, it means good 
money to him. He is still alive and thinks a lot of 
Walter. He is the heartiest kind of a man ; he likes 
your boys." 

And then, as if searching and hesitating for a name 
that should express all this, the control says : " Wal- 
ter laughs at me, for he thinks I ought to know it." 

Walter had certainly projected the man's business 
in recognizable shape to people familiar with city 
postal ways. One can hardly fail to recognize the 
mail-carrier and his leather bag, and the sorting of 
letters. But while the control so well reproduced 
Walter's descriptive symbolism, her earth experience 
was very limited, I am told, and that might well ac- 
count for the failure to attach the business name. 
The personal touch was good. The broad shoulders 
of the man and his hearty manner are noticeable fea- 
tures of his personality. 

I put one last question on the Amherst life : 

How many of your professors have passed over? 

" Two or three," was the interpretation. " One 



MAY 2, 1913 359 

was an old man whom Walter liked, and whom he has 
seen in spirit land. You know anybody, a gray- 
haired man, and not an awfully big man, a very kind 
face, and somebody the boys all liked? The boys 
loved him just as much as his confreres, because he 
was good. They call him ' Doctor ' ; it is a title that 
belongs to him." 

The word, " confreres," the control pronounced 
hesitatingly, but she got hold of it, though she said 
it was not familiar to her. 

This is a very apt description and I need not en- 
large upon it. The personal relation between the 
venerable Doctor and his pupils was peculiarly 
strong. 

Walter also stated he had seen in the spirit another 

revered Amherst teacher — Prof. G . " We have 

had many discussions, and he is much interested in 
the psychological work between spirit and mortal." 

GOOD-BYE WORDS 

Then came Walter's good-bye words, which were 
the closing message in this wonderful series of sit- 
tings, which had been to us a veritable gateway into 
the spiritual and heavenly world. 

" I dread to go, because I have as many things 
as you that I would like to talk about. I have talked 
with Mr. Myers, and he says he will continue to help 

me. . . . And M ! how much I have to be glad 

of — those years we had together, never-to-be-for- 
gotten. And you two! I put my arms about you 
both, and tell you again that there never was such a 
father and mother as I had and have. And it is the 
greatest joy that has come to me to be still working 



360 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

with you. Don't go too fast, Pop, about the things 
you want to do." . . . 

Of course these words were given through the con- 
trol of the psychic, but their tender impressiveness 
as they came that way I cannot well describe. Of 
this we know with a knowledge too deep for words, 
they came from Walter. 

To this last report, I venture to make the following 
brief psychic addenda from subsequent sittings (Nov. 
and Dec, 1913) for their evidential interest. 

" HOME OF YOUR OWN AT LAST " 



a 



The changes I know all about, and I am happy 
and glad. I know you wish so many times that I 
could be with you in the new conditions. So many 
things I could do if I were there. But I love the 
house, and am glad that you have got it. You 
deserve it. It will make for happiness for the rest 
of your days. Now you will have opportunity to do 
some of the things you have always wanted to do, 
and some of the restrictions of your life are removed. 
I do feel that I am a part of this new life with you. 
I am too happy trying to make your lives right ; you 

both worked hard, and you did so much for us, M 

and me. Now I am glad to see that one of your 
dreams is being realized.' 5 

Control : " And then he puts out a big H, big 
O, big M, and big E, o — f, y — o u — r, 

O W N, A T, !L A S T." 

" I am not alone in this rejoicing; we had a kind 
of housewarming over here. We all came to the house 
and began our arrangements for better connections 



MAY 2, 1913 361 

and communications with you both. Some things 
you will have to wait a little while for ; they will come 
fitting in from time to time, until you are just as well 
adjusted as though you had lived there for forty 
years. Some of the old walks and scenes that were 
familiar to me and to you, and old associations that 
seemed a part of that life of ours, were hard to leave, 
and it was rather hard the last few days. But it 
made little difference to me about the past; it was 
what was going to be best for your old age." 

" He laughs. He is full of life and fun this morn- 
ing, joyous and happ}^," the control adds. 

" I go up where street cars go, and look down and 
see a lot of houses like a city. We like the view, we 
like the location. It is healthy. It isn't an old 
house, it is a new house, it is all clean and sweet. 
There is a place where no paper is on ; I can touch the 
plaster. It is sunny, it is where the sun comes in. 

" There is another thing. You have been to 
church where you didn't preach (I mean lately), a 
good-sized church, a big affair, and lots of people. 
I see you going in, but I see you sitting down with 
the sinners." 

We laughed heartily at Walter's joke. " That is 
what he says," added the control ; " ' I wouldn't lose 
my sense of a humorous situation in life for any- 
thing.' " 

Walter continued: 

" Walter sees what is going on in your home. Is 
there anybody in your home with you? There is 
some one who brings you a certain care and responsi- 
bility." 



362 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

"YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE STARS" 

Control: "I see you out somewhere, it is just 
two or three nights ago. You are out doors and the 
stars are out ; I can see them shining in the sky. 
You are looking at the stars. You like the stars, 
don't you? When they are out, you always look up 
at the sky and speak of the stars. Walter says: 
6 You taught me that, I love them just as you do.' " 

We traced out the constellations with Walter and 
M in their course in Astronomy. 

Can you see the stars over there? I asked. 

" I have to get in a dark place. When spirits want 
to see them, they have to get into shadow somewhere." 
He says it is significant — this looking up at the 
stars in the dark. 

" Now your Walter wasn't pious, but had the true 
religion in him, no foolish nonsense or fanatical piety 
in him. He always stood for truth. His reverence 
is one of the strongest things in him, and his grand- 
mother loves that in him." 

I will add that the various details here given and 
implied — as our gazing at the friendly stars at the 
time referred to and our interest in their study, our 
recent settlement in our new house on Springfield 
Highlands, the special arrangement of the house for 
sunlight, the reference to a third one in the home, a 
pupil in the High School, Walter's characteristic 
sense of humor and reverence, and some details not 
given, as my fussiness in arranging our books — 
were correctly and strikingly given. To the psychic 
student these revelations come to be a matter of 



MAY 2, 1913 363 

course and hardly awaken surprise, but to the skep- 
tical beginner they are, of course, startling and may 
suggest fraud as the shortest way out. But the 
skeptical beginner has the same recourse here as all 
earnest psychic students — and that is to pay the 
price of long, hard, and devoted investigation. 
" Buy the truth and sell it not." I may say that the 
psychic knew nothing of our change of residence at 
this time, and to speak of her knowledge of the inner 
details and shadings of our life is too simple to con- 
sider. In all our sittings Mrs. G and I had no 

communication with the psychic, Mrs. C , and did 

not see her in her normal condition, except on two 
occasions as we were ready to leave we saw her by 
our own request for a few minutes' friendly talk. 

At an interview of this period through another 
psychic who stands well in spiritualistic circles, I 
quote the following from brief notes made at the 
time : — 

" A man stands here now, he went out of life so 
suddenly, so suddenly," the control said feelingly. 
" He says : ' I had to go quickly. I wouldn't come 
back into flesh if I could. I am satisfied, I am all 
right.' " 

"WHY DON'T YOU GO ON WITH THE BOOK?" 

Mr. W. T. Stead seems to have manifested at this 
sitting. Walter has an acquaintance with Mr. Stead 
and his son on the other side through a common psy- 
chic interest, and this would seem to account for the 
following : 

" This man says — ' I am Stead. Why don't you 



364 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 

go on> with the booh? The book I will try to help 
you with.' He refers to some manuscript. You have 
a work to do, keep seeking." . . . 

This was most remarkable indeed. I had not done 
much on the book in view for some time on account of 
settling in our new home, and my mind at the time 
was not at all on this matter. And it was utterly out 
of the question that the psychic could have known 
anything whatever about the book or about me either. 
I was a total stranger to her in every sense. 

CLOSING THE CASE 

It is of great advantage that we seek to look at the 
truth of life proportionately. And there is no ques- 
tion here that our religious outlook, our theology, is 
sadly imperfect in its scheme and philosophy of the 
future life. There is no question of the cry that 
goes up from millions of human hearts for assurance 
here, and for the vital touch of communion, the old 
sense of nearness and communication with loved ones 
lost that shall bring healing. How can we help the 
world and ourselves here? Racon speaks of the dens 
and caves in which the human mind is prone to shut 
itself up. No one likes to think he is doing that. 
" A reasonable man ought to act reasonably," is a 
wise saying. Racon gave us the inductive method for 
examining phenomena and finding out their laws and 
principles. We must concede a wide difference be- 
tween the earnest inductive search and experimental 
evidence of a fact and a merely a priori or theologi- 
cally-necessary assumption in regard to it. It is 
easy to be an a priori philosopher. We plead, then, 
for the reasonable attitude of the patient inductive 



MAY 2, 1913 365 

method in psychic inquiry which has accomplished 
so much on other lines of search. There should be 
real and persistent study of psychic truth, a docile 
and unprejudiced spirit, a desire to know the truth, 
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and with 
all a high and holy appreciation of the commanding 
magnitude of this truth of spirit communication. 
Nothing can cover up this great issue. We may 
ignore it, we may let the materialistic sense or re- 
spectable distaste and prepossessions rule our minds, 
we may be tempted to support that system which sup- 
ports us, but this psychic question will have its hear- 
ing more and more, for it holds a great saving truth 
for humanity. Said a noted investigator here — " It 
is the most interesting and important subject that 
can possibly engage the attention of any human 
being." And Mr. Myers : " What other effort after 
knowledge is equally worth our pains ? " And taking 
it all in all, in all its bearings upon the life to come 
and the life that now is ; in its bearing upon a revival 
of the simple, practical, and spiritual religion of 
Christ; in the reaffirmation of Paul's law of sowing 
and reaping; in the striking emphasis of the higher 
spirit teachings upon Love as the supreme principle 
in life, and upon the molding power of habitual 
thought ; in its bearing upon human brotherhood ; in 
deepening the sense of reality; and above all in its 
demonstration of immortality along the natural order, 
releasing us from our doubts and fears and material- 
istic illusions, healing our bereaved hearts and putting 
a new song into our mouth — taking the psychic 
quest in all these and other bearings, I fully agree 
with the statements given. 



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